We are honored that our flagship coffee has won a New Product Award. This is one of the ultimate stamps of approval for the work done by Endiro farmers in Uganda and our roastery team in USA – Cody Lorance.

Originating from Bukalasi in Bududa of Elgon Region, Endiro Coffee has found its place on a global market due to its quality and differentiated branding. TrueGolfer had a chat with the company Co-Director Cody Lorance at the sidelines of NAMCA Convention in Dallas, Texas and here are the excerpts of their talk.

On May 10, 2022, Endiro Coffee’s  Uganda Bududa Bukalasi Coffee won the New Product Award in the Coffee and Cocoa Category in Aurora, Illinois as part of the Specialty Food Association’s (SFA) 2022 sofi™ Awards, a top honor in the $170.4 billion specialty food industry. This marks the first time a Ugandan product has won this high honor.

The Specialty Food Association (SFA) has been the leading trade association and source of information about the $170.4 billion specialty food industry for 70 years.

Endiro Coffee’s Uganda Bududa Bukalasi Coffee was one of 102 winners selected by a panel of specialty food experts from nearly 2,000 entries across 53 product categories. Products are judged on taste, including flavor, appearance, texture and aroma, ingredient quality, and innovation. All tastings are anonymous and are held at the Rutgers Food Innovation Center.

“We are honored that our flagship coffee has won a New Product Award. As entrepreneurs, we are always looking for ways to know that our product is loved. This is one of the ultimate stamps of approval for the work done by Endiro farmers in Uganda and our roastery team in the USA. We are very grateful,” said Cody Lorance, Co-CEO of Endiro Coffee.

Endiro Coffee is a tree-to-cup coffee company that was founded in Kampala, Uganda in 2011. It grows coffee in Bududa Bukalasi in Uganda, operates cafes in Uganda and the USA, and roasts for wholesales out of Aurora, Illinois. As a Certified B Corp, Endiro is committed to producing coffee in ways that are free from exploitation of people or the environment. Endiro’s vision is to end child vulnerability globally through coffee.

At Endiro Coffee, we operate on a very different assumption than most companies that export or roast Ugandan coffee.  The prevailing model has been to pursue higher and higher volumes of lower quality commodity coffee which is utterly dependent upon neo-liberal trade forces and futures prices. Vietnam is often held up as a good example to emulate because it produces significantly more total revenue from coffee than Uganda (USD S2.7million v. USD $500 million in 2019).

In the past several years, we have seen the quality of coffee produced in our cooperative partners increase dramatically.  Our commitment to never blending one village with another has resulted in thousands of customers who now know the name “Bukalasi” and are loyal daily drinkers.  Further, this loyal fan base are deeply invested in the Bukalasi as a real place and to the farmers as real people.

In 2018, when mudslides devastated the community and took the lives of several of our member farmers, Endiro Coffee drinkers mobilized to raise thousands of dollars in financial and material relief in just a few weeks.

The approach of focusing on highly specialized, differentiated, unblended coffee in Bukalasi has created greater wealth per household than traditional methods. By focusing on women producers, this wealth has resulted in the first fruits of community development in the form of a new school, medical clinic, and diversified agricultural strategies.

We have proven that Ugandan coffee can taste as good as any other coffee in the world and have further proven that an origin such as “Bukalasi” can have potential to gain its own reputation alongside “Yirgacheffe” or “Sidamo”.

We have seen enough evidence to convince us that this approach can greatly empower farmers and transform their communities. We have a long way to go, but expansion is on the immediate horizon.

We will be introducing a new Bududa village to the American marketplace later this year.  As we scale into the Asian and broader American marketplaces, we are actively looking to add a few additional growing cooperatives in Masaabaland to our family who will be able to share our commitment to specialty coffee production, environmental sustainability, and women in leadership.

Endiro Coffee Contact:

Endiro Coffee is available online at www.endirocoffee.com, at our café locations and in participating retailers including Trader Joe’s.

Cody Lorance “Omulangira Ngobi”

Co-CEO of Endiro Coffee

cody@endirocoffee.com