Coffee Tour with Sipi Locals｜Uganda

Begin your tour with a walk through lush green coffee farms, often located next to local homes, showing how coffee is a part of everyday life here. See the coffee plants, and learn how coffee cherries start green and turn bright red or yellow when they are ripe.

If it's the right season, usually around August to December and then again March to May, you might even get to help pick some ripe coffee cherries yourself, as that’s can be fun a hands-on experience.

After picking, the coffee cherries go through a few important steps to get the coffee bean out. First, the soft outer skin, the so-called pulp of the cherry, is removed, often using a simple machine that looks like a hand-cranked grinder.

Next, the beans are put into the water for a short time. This helps to remove any sticky layers left on the bean, then they are washed and cleaned. The clean coffee beans, still covered in a thin skin (parchment), are spread out on the raised beds or the mats in the sun to dry. This is a very important step, and you will see the farmer carefully turning the beans to ensure they are dry evenly. This can take several days.

Once the coffee beans are dry, the outer parchment layer is removed, and then one that is left is green coffee bean and that’s the one that gets roasted. This is where the magic happens and then the wonderful coffee smells fills the air.

In Sipi, many tours show you the traditional way of roasting, the farmers often use a simple pan over an open fire. Watch the green beans slowly change color, from the light green to yellow, and then to brown, and finally a rich, dark brown. This is where you will hear the ‘’pop’’ like popcorn as they roast.

The smell during roasting is amazing, its rich, nutty, and then sweet-a true coffee lover’s delight. Your guide will explain how the roasting process brings out the different flavors in the coffee.

Once the beans are perfectly roasted, it’s time to make coffee. The roasted beans are ground into a fine powder. This might be done using a traditional mortar and pestle or a small hand grinder. Finally, the fresh coffee powder is brewed. Often, this is done simply by adding hot water, letting it steep and then straining it.

And then the best part-you get to taste a cup of freshly brewed Sipi coffee, it’s incredibly fresh, aromatic, and then delicious. You will truly appreciate the journey it took to get to your cup.