This coffee tastes like Earl Grey tea had a baby with sticky toffee pudding.

I bet you didn't think you'd read that today :). But that's literally what we tasted in the cup when we first tried it. Earl Grey florals, sticky toffee sweetness, some green apple brightness, dark chocolate finish. It's different! And it works.

The reason it tastes like this: someone in Uganda called a beer yeast company and asked if they could borrow some yeast for a coffee experiment.

What happened:

The Coffee Gardens in Uganda wanted to try something different. Most Ugandan coffee gets processed the traditional way, ferment for a day or two, wash, dry, done. Works great, tastes good and reliable, nobody's complaining.

But The Coffee Gardens rebuilt their entire washing station in 2022 and apparently decided "we have all this new infrastructure, let's do something fun with it."

So they contacted Fermentis, the company that makes yeast for brewing beer and wine, and basically said "can we have some samples to mess around with coffee fermentation?"

Fermentis said yes (probably intrigued), sent them four different yeast strains, and The Coffee Gardens went full science experiment mode.

This lot: 100 hours fermenting in cherry, then pulped, then another 40 hours submerged with commercial brewing yeast doing whatever brewing yeast does to coffee.

Result: tastes like tea time at a British café, but it's coffee.

What's in the cup 

Green apple acidity first, bright and clean even though this fermented for almost a week. Red berries. Then the Earl Grey thing flavors come through in a pleasant way. Sticky toffee sweetness mid-palate. Dark chocolate finish that lasts.

It's complex but not chaotic, which is impressive. 

Details and Process 

• Nyasaland, SL14, and SL28 varieties
• 100-hour cherry fermentation
• 40-hour submerged fermentation with commercial brewing yeast (Fermentis S-series)
• 234 smallholder farmers
• 1,800-2,200 mas 
  

Process

The process is the result of a first-of-its-kind collaboration with the yeast experts at Fermentis to prove that experimental fermentation can be both wild and incredibly clean.

The method:

1. 100h fruit phase: The cherries are fermented whole in tanks for 100 hours. This long, slow contact with the fruit skin develops the deep "Sticky Toffee" sweetness and body.
2. Yeast inoculation: During fermentation, specific yeast strains are introduced. These "good" yeasts outcompete wild bacteria, preventing over-fermentation and "locking in" the delicate Earl Grey florals and crisp apple acidity.
3. 40h wash: After pulping, the coffee undergoes a second 40-hour submerged fermentation. This "cleans" the parchment, resulting in a cup that balances experimental complexity with a polished finish. 

How we're roasting it 

To be honest, we’d never roasted a Ugandan coffee that tasted like high-end tea before. What worked best is a light+ roast to keep those Earl Grey florals front and center. By extending the development phase just slightly, we managed to unlock the "sticky toffee" sweetness without sacrificing the crisp green apple acidity. It’s a delicate balance we had to test multiple times to get exactly right. 

About the farm

234 smallholder farmers around Mt. Elgon grow this coffee, then haul it down the mountain to "The Coffee Gardens" washing station themselves, earning extra income for the work beyond just selling cherries.

The Coffee Gardens was established in 2017 specifically to produce specialty coffee ethically with direct transparency between farmers and consumers. In 2022 they literally dismantled their entire old washing station and rebuilt it at a new site to expand capacity and have the infrastructure for experiments.

Then they contacted Fermentis (the brewing yeast company) and asked if they could run trials. Most coffee operations would just... not do that. The Coffee Gardens decided their whole purpose was to improve farmers' income while making exceptional coffee, so why not try fermenting with beer yeast?

They pay farmers 59.5% of the price. Industry standard is 20-30%. 

The farmers bringing coffee down the mountain themselves get paid for that work too. It's a pretty different approach from the usual "farmers grow, we buy cheap, we process, we profit" model.

This is their first season testing yeast fermentation. They got results good enough to plan more experiments next season. Which means you're drinking version 1.0 of something they're just starting to figure out.