Fall is a funny feeling — crispy mornings and evenings, daylight stolen bit by bit with each passing day, warmth no longer gifted from the elements but created — SEARCHED FOR — from within. For this time of year, we yearn for round and cozy sweetness, for gentle spice, for PERSPECTIVE on the bittersweet passage of time. Fall is a thief — but perhaps a Robin Hood style one, whirring round the drifting leaves as all of that explosive summer energy stows itself in the sips that steer us toward winter.

This year, Sylvia’s coffee conjures up all those feelings for us: a comforting confluence of nostalgia and forward-thinking all rolled into one. Sylvia herself is a force to be reckoned with — after years working as a nurse in the communities dotting Mt. Elgon, she and her husband chose to start Masha Coffee, a collection and processing outpost originally based from their own home in Kapchorwa. 

With trust already established among the hundreds of producers picking SL-24 & 28’s in their garden plots, Sylvia was able to quickly establish a reputation for quality, and in 2024 Masha constructed a dedicated washing station even higher up the mountain, now collecting from more producers and processing with the help of Sylvia’s sister, Unice, an agribusiness graduate who completed Q Processing Level 1 last year. This lot is one of that station’s first outturns, and we are simply smitten: juicy red apple smothered in caramel, lip-smacking round sweetness, sweet spice like coconut flakes, and a stately omniscience imbued with every sip (be careful to stay humble), this lot is beautifully telling of how high the potential is in Uganda’s peak Arabica regions — and we are thrilled to be along for the ride.