Every bag on this page comes from trees Justin’s grandparents planted, growing in permanent banana shade at 1,300 metres, picked by hand, pounded in a mortar to a song, and finished over an open wood fire. Nothing here left the hillside to be made.
Justin answers his own phone, usually within a few minutes.
The bag is not the product. The day is. Each of these is simply the last step of a stage you can come and stand inside, and one of them has not been near the fire at all.
Thirteen hundred metres up the volcano, the trees never see direct sun. Banana leaves hold the canopy, old forest holds the mist, and weathered volcanic ash holds the minerals. Cold nights slow the cherry down, and a slow cherry has time to build sugar.
What it becomes The Shade Medium Roast
Photograph by @oncamcreations
The husk comes off in a mortar hollowed from a tree trunk, with the whole yard taking a turn on the pole and the chant setting the pace. Then the pan goes over an open wood flame, and it is all timing and wrist until the seeds turn glossy and dark.
What it becomes The Woodfire Dark Roast
Water that fell as snow on the summit travels down through porous rock and arrives cool and mineral bright. It meets the fresh powder in a clay pot on the fire. This is the cup you are handed at the end, sitting down, having carried it the whole way.
What it becomes Ground for the PotSmall batches, because a flat pan over a wood fire cannot be hurried. Sold in a pouch the women of Materuni sew by hand, so no two carry the same pattern.
Citrus, stone fruit, milk chocolate
The everyday cup from the shaded rows. Bright at the top, soft in the middle, clean at the finish. This is the roast Justin pours for guests who say they do not usually like black coffee.
Hand-selected and roasted over woodfire on the hillside.
Justin quotes the current rate on WhatsApp, including postage to your country.
Order this one
Deep cocoa, woodsmoke, brown sugar
Taken further over the flame, the way the village drinks it. Heavier in the cup, with the smoke of the fire still somewhere in it. Made for a stovetop pot or a strong morning.
Hand-selected and roasted over woodfire on the hillside.
Justin quotes the current rate on WhatsApp, including postage to your country.
Order this one
Ready for the clay pot or the stovetop
Pounded down after roasting and packed the same day, the way it is served on the estate. Tell Justin how you brew at home and he grinds it to match before it goes in the bag.
Hand-selected and roasted over woodfire on the hillside.
Justin quotes the current rate on WhatsApp, including postage to your country.
Order this one
For roasting in your own kitchen
Washed, dried and hand sorted, but never near a fire. Green beans keep for a year or more, which makes them the easiest thing to carry home in a suitcase and the best gift for anyone who roasts their own.
Hand-selected and roasted over woodfire on the hillside.
Justin quotes the current rate on WhatsApp, including postage to your country.
Order this oneYou do not have to order anything in advance. At the end of the day, on the way back from the falls, there is a table under the thatch with the coffee already bagged, the spices in jars, and one of the village women waiting to tell you what everything is.
Guests almost always buy more here than they meant to, because by then they have picked the cherries, taken a turn on the mortar and tasted the cup. The pouch stops being a souvenir and starts being the day itself.
Justin sends the full figure on WhatsApp before you commit to anything. It covers everything, and it does not move afterwards. No deposit to see it, nothing added at the gate.
Not a demonstration with a rope in front of it. Your hands on the branch, your turn on the pole, your wrist on the pan. That is the whole point of coming.
The farmers, the cooks, the guides and the women who sew the pouches are all neighbours in Materuni. What you spend here feeds this village, not an agency down in town.
In Justin’s own words, what he wants is that you come and see how coffee is made in the tradition, and enjoy it together with his family. Guests, not customers.
The coffee is good on its own. It tastes different once you have picked the cherries, taken your turn on the mortar and watched the beans darken over the fire. Then choose your bag.
Open every day, 6:00 to 21:00 East Africa Time.
