our robusta coffee was grown from seed in the south of Uganda at The Kasenge-Riverford organic agricultural centre.

the coffee seedlings took around a month to germinate.

the nursery full of thousands of coffee seedlings

a little shade makes the difference between life and death for a coffee seedling.

i think this must be the stage between seedling and tree for our happy coffee!

here is a fully grown and well tended coffee tree with cherries ready for picking.

the smell of coffee flowers is absolutely divine - a combination of jasmine and honeysuckle.

healthy green coffee beans

the cherries all ripen at different times, so the coffee is carefully hand picked.

the red cherries are carefully picked one at a time - which is where the saying "cherry picking" comes from!

the red cherries seem to be bursting with flavour!

you can see here cherries at differing degrees of ripeness.

here you have a perfect handful of ripe cherries.

this is how coffee beans look when they are drying.

some coffee is laid out on mats or on the ground to dry naturally in the sun.

in uganda many farmers roast and grind coffee. they grind the coffee with stones!

nothing goes to waste. the husks from the cherries are used to make compost.

here are the beans ready to be roasted

the smell of roasting coffee is wonderful and here are the beans as they come out of the machine.

these beans have had a long journey to get to this point.

the end product. all the way from uganda to a cup near you!