15/10/2023
Chariots of Fiery Coffee
When we started offering morning game drive coffee on our Safaris, it opened us up to a world of wild Aromas & Flavours. On a standard 18 days best of Uganda Trip, I'll buy the Utensils from downtown Kampala, a plunger from the roaring banks of the Nile in Jinja, and the roasted coffee from Sipi Falls.
By day 18, the coffee is drunk and done, some while seated on Kidepo Valley's rocky outcrops, some at the Nile's Delta in Murchison Falls, & the rest up in the Misty Bwindi just before the Gorilla Trek. At the end of the trip, these utensils will be gifted to someone that has been a blessing to the children in my community; a resilient single mother, a Sunday school teacher or Kindergarten instructor.
This coffee journey has taken me exploring the Elgon slopes of the far East, to the wild rift valley plains of the Congo Basin, and back to the rolling hillsides of Bwindi's terraced spaces. Today, the same journey brought me to the feet of Simon Ocen, Uganda's Coffee King and proprietor of Chariot Coffees & Barrister Academy.
As I waited for my hand grinder to arrive, Simon gave me a crush course in Coffee brewing, demonstrating how best we can make coffee on the move, and what an experience! Simon’s passion for good coffee, entrepreneurship, and mentoring is palpable. He's a man on fire, a chariot coffee kind of fire, and learning from him is an experience in itself. I love this country, so much so that I divide my time between the Law and showning it off to the world. Yet, meeting people of excellence like Simon makes me love this country even more.
As we sat down to the best coffee I ever tasted, he told me about his coffee journey, from being a Journalist reporting for Uganda's leading daily, to becoming Uganda's best coffee Brewer by 2018, and it's foremost barista trainer. His Urban Coffee garden is an open restaurant, complete with open space sockets and free WiFi. It's a wonderful stop for all Kampala City Tours, and one of Uganda's most inspiring business models.
Heading back home tomorrow, I'm a man on fire. The kind of fire that bakes raw passion into building blocks for a future that changes lives. Thank you Simon for living a contagiously great life, and for building a business that challenges & changes lives. Uganda is very proud of you sir, and God speed!
