Uganda coffee cupping notes are the written record of what a lot tasted like on the day it was cupped, and they carry cash value. On the September 24 report from the national price series, Bugisu AA sat at 270.9 US cents per pound and Robusta Screen 18 at 166.8, a spread of 104.1 cents. Screen size and defect count decide which grade a lot belongs to. Cupping decides where it lands inside that grade, and what a roaster will pay for it.

This guide covers the protocol used on Ugandan samples, the descriptors that turn up on each export grade, how the Fine Robusta form differs from the Arabica one, and what to record on a sample sheet before you commit to a container.

What the grade certificate leaves out

Uganda grades its export coffee nationally, and a grade is a physical description: screen size plus defect count per 300 grams. Bugisu AA sits at screen 18 and above with no more than 8 defects per 300 grams. Robusta Screen 18 works off the same screen and the same defect ceiling. The grade reference sets out the limits for all eight export grades, from Bugisu AA down to Drugar and from Screen 18 down to Screen 12.

None of that describes the cup. A certificate cannot tell you whether the sweetness holds as the coffee cools, whether the acidity reads as citrus or as vinegar, or whether the finish drops off after ten seconds. Two lots can both carry Bugisu AA on the paperwork and cup a point apart on the same form. Buyers who have been burned once ask for cupping notes on the specific lot and lot mark rather than on the grade.

Uganda coffee cupping notes by grade

These descriptors describe the centre of each export grade. Individual lots move around them.

  • Bugisu AA: dark chocolate, stone fruit and red berry, with a wine-like acidity and a long finish.
  • Bugisu A: chocolate and citrus, a mild spice note, and a shorter finish than AA.
  • Bugisu AB: caramel and nut over light fruit. The grade that survives milk, ice and cold brew.
  • Wugar: mild citrus, honey and toasted grain. Washed Arabica from lower ground.
  • Drugar: dried fruit and earth, built for large blends and supermarket programs.
  • Robusta Screen 18: heavy body, dark chocolate, low bitterness. The lot espresso blenders ask for.
  • Robusta Screen 15: peanut and cocoa over a bold cup.
  • Robusta Screen 12: cereal-forward, clean enough for commercial extraction at scale.

Arabica and Robusta need separate forms because they are scored on different attributes, and the Fine Robusta section below covers where they diverge.

What moves the cup inside a grade

Altitude, variety, soil and process all shift the cup while the grade name stays the same. Arabica comes off Mount Elgon, the Rwenzori range and the south west, mainly SL14, SL28 and Kent from smallholder plots. Robusta is indigenous to the Lake Victoria basin and makes up roughly 80 percent of Uganda's coffee exports, so the Robusta form matters as much as the Arabica one in any Ugandan sample set. The region guides and the variety profiles cover each growing area, and the processing guide covers the post-harvest side.

Process is the fastest lever on the table. A washed Bugisu lot reads clean and bright, with the fruit sitting behind the acidity. The same cherry dried as a natural pushes berry and dried fruit into the front of the cup and softens the acid. Honey lots land between the two, depending on how much mucilage the mill left on the parchment.

A validation study of Ugandan flavour profiles grouped the country into ten zones, four Arabica and six Fine Robusta, each with its own sensory signature. The flavour profiles section sets out those zones for buyers who want to source by profile rather than by grade alone.

The Fine Robusta form is a different form

Uganda did not adopt its Robusta standards from another origin. In 2014 the Uganda Coffee Development Authority and the Coffee Quality Institute launched the Center of Robusta Excellence, financed by the Agribusiness Initiative Trust, and published the first standards guide for Fine Robusta. The Coffee Quality Institute's Fine Robusta Standards and Protocols, drawn up with the Ugandan authority and with USAID support, is the document to ask a lab to work from.

The specification it sets is tighter than the commercial trade usually assumes.

  • Fine Robusta green coffee carries zero primary defects and no more than five secondary defects in a 350 gram sample. Up to three quakers are allowed in a 100 gram roasted sample, and the final cupping score must reach 80.00.
  • Premium Robusta allows no more than twelve combined defects in 350 grams and up to five quakers per 100 grams roasted, also at 80.00 and above.
  • Moisture has to fall between 10 and 12 percent on a wet basis, and the green sample is 350 grams plus or minus 0.2 grams.
  • Bean size is a contract term rather than a quality specification, but it must not deviate more than 5 percent from what the contract names.

The form scores ten attributes: fragrance and aroma, flavour, aftertaste, salt and acid aspect ratio, bitter and sweet aspect ratio, mouthfeel, balance, uniform cups, clean cups, and overall. Two of those replace the Arabica form's acidity and body scores. Robusta carries more potassium than Arabica, so salt registers in the cup and has to be scored apart from acid. Fine Robusta lots are marked by low salt and higher organic acid, which is why a carefully prepared Ugandan Robusta can drink softer than its reputation suggests.

The competition record supports that. The Best of the Pearl Robusta Competition, run by the authority with the Uganda Coffee Federation and USAID support, cupped the country's best lots in 2023 and returned 86.25 in the natural category, 85.5 in honey and 83.5 in washed. All three clear the Fine Robusta threshold of 80.

Running the cupping

The protocol numbers differ between the two species, and a lab cupping both should not use one set of figures for the whole table.

  • Ratio: 8.75 grams of coffee per 150 millilitres of water on the Robusta protocol, against 8.25 grams per 150 millilitres for Arabica under Specialty Coffee Association practice.
  • Cups: five from each sample, so uniformity can be judged across the flight.
  • Grind: 70 to 75 percent of the grounds passing an 841 micron (US number 20) sieve.
  • Roast: 9 to 14 minutes, cupped between 8 and 24 hours after roasting, at an Agtron gourmet reading of 48 on whole bean or 78 ground, within one unit.
  • Water: about 93 degrees Celsius, poured to the rim, then four minutes of undisturbed steeping before the crust is broken.
  • Scale: quarter point increments from 6 to 10, where 6.00 is good, 7.00 very good, 8.00 fine and 9.00 outstanding. Defects are deducted from the total to give the final score.

Two points specific to Ugandan samples. Cup the grade you are actually buying, because a Screen 15 offer will not read like a Screen 18 lot even when both come off the same mill. And keep a control: a retained sample from a lot you have already shipped is worth more on the table than any written description of it.

What goes on the sample sheet

A sheet that carries only a number is close to useless three months later, when the pre-shipment sample arrives and somebody has to decide whether the lot matches the offer. Record the lot mark and grade, the screen, the district and the processing station, the process, the moisture reading, the green defect count, the roast date and time, and the final score. Then write down the descriptors you actually tasted rather than the ones you expected, including anything unpleasant. A taint logged at sample stage is a conversation with the exporter. The same taint found after discharge is a claim.

Uganda coffee cupping notes in the contract

Cupping notes belong in the trade documents, not in a notebook. Name the grade and the moisture limit in the specification, attach the sample and the sheet you cupped it against, and the quality clause has a baseline to argue from. That matters on the 28 day quality claim window running from final discharge, which the buyer's guide sets out alongside registration checks and payment structures. It matters again when a European buyer wants the cup profile filed next to their due diligence data.

Prices for every grade, updated each trading day, sit on the Uganda coffee prices portal. Read them together with the cup. The September 24 spread between Bugisu AA and Robusta Screen 18 came to 104.1 US cents per pound, which is about USD 2.30 per kilogram, or roughly UGX 8,800 at the mid rate. Uganda coffee cupping notes are the evidence a premium of that size rests on, and the only way a buyer can test whether a lot has earned it.