By Irene Best Nyapendi
The allure of the aroma, taste and alertness boost of coffee has beckoned students of Uganda Christian University (UCU) for quite some time. Recently, they have bowed to the pressure, pleasure and habit through a university coffee club.
Led by Daniel Karibwije, a lecturer at the UCU School of Business and a patron of the Coffee Club, the organization is being launched more broadly in June. The launch of the club follows UCU’s signing of a memorandum of understanding with Uganda’s coffee agency, the Uganda Coffee Development Authority (UCDA). UCDA is mandated to regulate, promote and oversee the coffee industry in Uganda.
As a lover of coffee, Karibwije says he was disappointed by the absence of good coffee on the UCU main campus, which sparked the idea for him to start a coffee club. In late April, members of the club received barista training, an espresso machine, a grinder, and other resources from UCDA to help them get started.
The club intends to create a platform for students to engage in coffee brewing, host student barista competitions and promote a coffee-drinking culture among the youths in the country. In Uganda, many of the people who grow coffee seek to export it, and they rarely consume it themselves.
The UCU Coffee Club is located at the UCU incubation club, where anyone can go to learn how to brew coffee or enjoy the beverage. As the club prepared for its June launch, they planned to promote coffee drinking to faculties and those attending graduation ceremonies, among other outreaches.
The club is not just for coffee drinkers; it’s open to anyone who wants to taste or learn about brewing coffee.
During his teenage years, Karibwije said he regularly interacted with a neighbor working for a coffee exporting company and many foreigners. This sparked his curiosity about their love for coffee. He wondered why they were fond of the beverage. As he acquired more knowledge and consumed the drink, he learned the benefits and health risks of coffee. The beverage has been known to improve brain function and protect against diabetes while causing headaches.
For over 25 years now, on a normal day, Karibwije drinks two to three cups of coffee.
“I love my coffee dark, without sugar or milk and I usually brew it myself,” he explained. “I also drink coffee brewed by other baristas.”
As a member of the UCU Coffee Club, Lydia Natasha Muheire, a third-year student pursuing Bachelor of Science in Accounting and Finance, has discovered a new passion – brewing coffee.
Muheire’s previous exposure to coffee was limited to helping her grandparents collect coffee beans in the plantation.
“I don’t like milk, but mixing it with coffee transforms it into my favorite drink,” Muheire said. “That’s how I fell in love with cappuccino and latte – they offer a delightful aroma and flavor combination.”
Muheire added: “I was excited to join the coffee club, having always admired baristas and thought about becoming one.”
Richard Miiro Mutebi, a member of the UCU Coffee Club, was born to small-scale coffee farmers. To him, coffee is something he turned to whenever he wanted or needed to be up later than usual.
“I haven’t always been a coffee enthusiast,” Mutebi said. “However, I often turned to coffee when I needed to stay up late at night because it’s known to boost alertness.”
Uganda is among the highest coffee exporters globally, and second in Africa. Despite being one of the largest coffee producers in Africa, Uganda’s coffee industry remains largely untapped by its citizens, with only 5% of its coffee being consumed locally. Globally, the highest exporters of coffee are Brazil, Switzerland, Germany and the Netherlands.
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