Serving People Serving Coffee Since 2005
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34 barista magazine even more excited, in fact. "I must build a coffee factory in Kanun- gu," he exclaimed. He had brought samples for me to cup, as well, which was a very good thing—I may have thought he was a bit off, had he not. I sample roasted and cupped fi ve cups of three coffees using standard Specialty Coffee As- sociation of America protocol. All the cups were extremely defective—all the cups except for one. Not one sample—one cup. I scored it 88. That one cup from four years ago is the reason for me being in Kanun- gu now, and deeply involved in the Kanungu–Gorilla Summit project. In the spring of 2016, I return to the coffee lands of Kanungu for one-and-a-half weeks. For everyone, the visit is fi lled with anticipa- tion, high expectations, and excitement about furthering the Gorilla Summit Coffee project. The main goals for this trip are to assess the smallholder coffee farms, wet-mill practices, the day-lots processed from last November through this January, and to begin to build a supply chain for export. On day one, we head to the Gorilla Summit wet mill, which is about a nine-hour drive from Entebbe on the shore of Lake Victoria. It's here where I have spent countless hours giving advice in coffee pro- cessing and noting where quality and practices have seen the largest changes. One of the most signifi cant changes occurred over the past three years while we were trying to decide how to ferment. Two years ago, we made test batches of the producers' traditional 12-hour wet fermentation and a nontraditional 12-hour dry fermentation, both with a 24-hour soak after fermentation, followed by a washing to fur- ther clean the parchment as well as gain more separation by density. After our experiments, we found that a 12-to-15-hour dry fermen- tation followed by a wash, a 24-hour cold water soak, another wash, and—fi nally—transfer to dry on raised beds for about 14–21 days, is the optimal formula. In mid-2015, Gerald hired Peter Karanja, aka "The Kenyan," to manage the mill and drying beds. Peter comes from Thika Town, Ken- ya, and used to manage an estate that has since been turned into a Eton hand sorts day lots at the African Coff ee Academy in Kampala. SYRUPS SAUCES POWDERS AT BOOTH 417 | 419 COFFEE FEST DALLAS CREATED BY BARISTAS FOR BARISTAS COME VISIT US