Nespresso’s organic coffee blend from Uganda launches in the UAE

While working with local farmers to help revive Uganda’s coffee industry, Nespresso has created AMAHA awe UGANDA, a rich and clean espresso flavor available across the UAE. 

Dubai, United Arab Emirates, July 2022 – Nespresso UAE has launched AMAHA awe UGANDA so the UAE’s coffee lovers can enjoy a rich new coffee blend while helping revive the Uganda’s coffee industry and restoring the exquisite coffee Uganda was once known for. 

The AMAHA awe UGANDA – which translates to “hope of Uganda” in the country’s local language – is a rich, clean espresso with a wild character that Nespresso introduced as part of its Reviving Origins Program in a commitment to revive Uganda’s declining coffee practice whilst also revealing the true quality potential of natural Arabica. 

An intensity 8 espresso grown in a unique terroir, where shade and nutrients provided by banana trees create a true Arabica dreamland, resulting in the blend’s rare sandalwood and elegant floral notes. When served as a Latte Macchiato, the biscuit and discrete fruity notes come alive in a balanced and sweet cup.  

Each cup of Nespresso coffee from Uganda contributes to restoring of the country’s coffee regions, with the Reviving Origins program providing support to rebuild sustainable livelihoods for Uganda’s farmers and their communities. Coffee enthusiast can enjoy this exceptional Ugandan coffee blend while at the same time helping to preserve the future of some of the world’s finest and most unique coffees.  

Stretching 120km across western Uganda, the altitude and fertile soils of Rwenzori Mountains have provided ideal conditions for coffee farming for centuries. The snow-capped peaks and glaciers of the ‘mountains of the moon’ offer steady water sources and complement abundant rainfall and nourish fertile soils, while above the 1200m mark in the peaks of the hills, leafy banana trees provide plentiful shade and nutrients, creating a true Arabica dreamland where one of the world’s finest coffees grows.  

Despite these great conditions, the art of coffee farming in the region had become a dying practice until recently, with ageing trees and poor cultivation, compounded by drought and climate change, playing a major role in poor harvests, leading to diminished quality and yields.  

As part of the Reviving Origins program, Nespresso is investing AED 37.1m (CHF10M) over a period of five years until 2023 to revive coffee industries in selected countries, including Uganda, with the aim of encouraging rural economic development. In partnership with Agri Evolve, a young agribusiness dedicated to improving farmer productivity, Nespresso agronomists have provided training to more than 2,000 farmers in the region in 2019, educating local farmers on sustainable agricultural practices, boosting their expertise and skillset while allowing them to enhance the quality of their coffee.  

The program’s objective is to turn natural unwashed Arabica known as DRUGAR (Dried Uganda Arabica), which has traditionally been a coffee with the lowest quality, into a high quality and more profitable coffee. By working closely with farmers in this way, Nespresso aims to revive the true quality potential of natural Arabica in the region and increase production while simultaneously boosting social and economic welfare.  

Ugandan coffee farmer from the Rwenzori Mountains, Joseph Kirimbwa explains: “We’d stopped producing coffee before because it didn’t bring in enough revenue. So coffee was neglected, bit by bit. Until we were shown how it could once again be profitable. When I hear that people around the world are drinking my coffee it makes me very proud. It gives me the motivation to carry on.”  

“After receiving training from Nespresso, I have changed the way I pick my coffee, meaning I get a better quality coffee and more money. This better way of working my coffee crop means I was able to earn enough money to start building my house,” added Kirimbwa. 

Since its launch in 2019, the Reviving Origins program has enabled the production of exceptional coffees from challenged areas of Zimbabwe, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Colombia and now, Uganda, to become available as seasonal coffees for Nespresso coffee lovers in the UAE and across the globe. TheAAA Sustainable Quality™ Program, Nespresso’s unique sustainable sourcing model in coffee-producing countries, provides the foundation for the brand’s work in Reviving Origins regions and involves more than 110,000 farmers across the world.