This fortnight is Monastery Coffee, a small-batch roastery in Windsor Gardens. They roast, they run barista, roasting and cupping courses, and their head roaster co-founded Intersection Traders, the importer that brings in the coffee at the centre of this release.
That coffee is Bugimotwa, a natural from Mt Elgon in Uganda, and it is doing double duty this fortnight in both the single origin espresso and filter slots. Lee from Monastery reckons it is the best-value coffee they have for espresso right now, and after tasting it we did not argue.
Around it: a dark-roast seasonal blend built for milk, and a Colombian decaf.
Seasonal Blend (Dark Roast)
Ethiopia · Colombia · Brazil · Natural and washed components
Four coffees: Biya Faris (natural) and Limmu (washed) from Ethiopia, Tambo (washed) from Colombia, and Farroupilha (natural) from Brazil. Monastery deliberately take it further than their single origins, which drops the acidity and builds the body milk needs.
If your morning is a flat white made half-asleep, this is the one.
Bugimotwa (CM Natural)
Kabeywa, Mt Elgon, Uganda · SL-14, SL-28, Nyasaland · Natural · 1,700 to 2,100 MASL
Mt Elgon is a dormant volcano with big temperature swings and two rainy seasons, so the cherries ripen slowly. At the Bugimotwa washing station they are floated, sealed for 36 to 42 hours, then dried on raised beds for four to six weeks. Light roast.
Lee's starting point is a 1:2.8 ratio, which is longer than most home baristas pull. Trust it: a tight ristretto on a light natural just gets sour.
Bugimotwa (CM Natural)
Kabeywa, Mt Elgon, Uganda · SL-14, SL-28, Nyasaland · Natural · 1,700 to 2,100 MASL
Same bean, brewed slower. On filter the jam and green apple get more room and the almond sits underneath. Good hot, better as it cools.
Decaf Blend
Huila and Nariño, Colombia · Caturra, Castillo, Colombia · Washed · Sugarcane EA · 1,300 to 1,800 MASL
Monastery source it through Project Origin and pick lots scoring 84 to 85 points. It is decaffeinated with spring water and ethyl acetate from sugarcane, which takes out 99.9 per cent of the caffeine and leaves the structure alone.
Medium roast, and it works with or without milk.
How Monastery buy
Bugimotwa came out of a research project and public-private partnership set up to improve food security for coffee growers on Mt Elgon. Before that, their coffee mostly went to the commodity market because there was no way into specialty.
Intersection Traders pay on quality, deliberately include younger growers and women, and work through the community-owned washing station that opened in 2019.
The honest caveat: one coffee across both single origin slots means less variety this fortnight if you get both. And the blend is properly dark. If you like your espresso bright and fruity, take the single origin.
A small-batch roaster in Windsor Gardens that also teaches, with barista, roasting and cupping courses run out of the roastery. Their head roaster co-founded Intersection Traders, which imports the Bugimotwa in this release.
Monastery Coffee is in the rotation now
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