'Lion's Roar' - Honey Process Robusta

All of you who know and love this coffee have waited eagerly for its return - well, the wait is over! We are very excited to finally have Stephan Katongole’s ‘Lion’s Roar’ ROBUSTA on the menu again. It developed into a proper fan-favourite and it is a proper direct trade coffee which we buy directly from Stephan. After the devastation on his farm in 2023 due to a freaky unseasonal hail storm, he has managed to come back even stronger. Stephan is very passionate about the quality of his coffees and about the principles of direct trade, hence the name of his business: coffeeyouknow. The coffee he produces has a very clean, earthy and chocolaty vibe to it with hints of fruit, just enough to make a very exciting full bodied and spicy Espresso.

Robusta is a different species of coffee from the more widely known Arabica. The vast majority of Robusta is low quality coffee that gets processed into instant coffee. In recent years though, there has been a slow but growing move towards producing higher quality specialty grade (or 'Fine') Robusta. As per the name, this species of coffee is slightly more robust as a plant. It is less prone to suffer from climate fluctuations, pest and plant diseases. It generally grows at lower elevations and produces higher yields. It also contains significantly more caffeine compared to Arabica beans which helps it defend itself against insects and other plant pests (caffeine being a natural insecticide and anti-microbial agent). In terms of the flavour in the cup Robusta usually produces a less complex, less acidic and less fruity cup. Bad Robusta usually makes for a bitter, burnt and rubbery cup of coffee. However, if done right it can be quite a different story. Stephan’s coffee is definitely proof of that. It is a brilliant example for this new world of Fine Robustas. With this pure Robusta for Espresso you get all the notes that we love about a proper traditional Italian Espresso - the chocolate, the depth, the body, the spicy earthiness - without the more unpleasant aspects of bitterness, astringency and burnt flavours. If you love Espresso, this one is for you!

Background Info:

Stephan’s farm is situated 200km south of Kampala, the capital of Uganda. His grandfather originally bought the land that is part of the indigenous rainforest in the area and started growing food crops like Matoke (cooking banana), maize, tomatoes and coffee. Stephan took over the farm about 10 years ago. In keeping with the traditional methods of using the surrounding vegetation for shade and mineral enrichment of the soil, he has expanded the coffee cultivation. Because of his sustainable approach to coffee farming he can avoid the use of additional pesticides and fertilisers and his coffees can be considered organic by default.

A lot of commercial grade coffee is grown in this area and Stephan competes with these bigger plantations over the coffee picking workforce during harvest season. In order to achieve the best quality he trains his workers to hand pick only the ripest coffee cherries. This is a lot more time and labour intensive which is one of the reasons his people get paid almost double the conventional rates and in addition to that he is always ready to help with medical expenses and things like school tuition for the workers’ children. For many of them their income from Stephan’s coffee farm means the difference between putting a meal on the table and going hungry. He has been very busy during the pandemic, renovating his farm and building new coffee processing facilities to be able to keep improving his processing techniques and this year he has tweaked his honey process to a point that elevated his flavour profile even more.

Here is what his honey process looks like: once the cherries are hand selected during picking, they are then only partially depulped with a substantial part of the sweet and sticky pulp still clinging to the coffee seeds. They are then spread out on raised netted beds to dry in the sun while the fermentation process is closely monitored to make sure the coffee doesn’t ferment too much or too quickly. Once the seeds have reached the right sweetness and moisture content of no more than 10-12%, the parchment coffee goes to the dry-mill to remove the parchment layer. While we bought the coffee from Stephan directly this year, we had some help from the friendly people of Mulembe Kaffee in Hannover with the logistics of getting it from Uganda to the UK. We are very excited to have it back on the menu and spoiler-alert: it’s more delicious than ever!