June 2025: Podium Gold. Royal Flamingo Coffee
Country: Uganda
Varietals: Nyasaland, SL-14, SL-28
Region: Sironko
Process: 48hr honey anaerobic
Producer: Sironko Station A+
Elevation: 1,600-2,200 MASL
Tasting notes: Neapolitan ice cream
The Coffee:
A part of Mountain Harvest's Innovation Series, this microlot is curated by Sironko's processing manager, Ibrahim Kiganda. For a season, we commit time to new processing protocols to test their profiling and consistency.
Ibrahim received these cherries exclusively from the Northern region of Mount Elgon. Once received, he assigns all lots of a cherry board of 80% and above and brix reading of an average of 17% to this protocol. He then places the cherry in plastic barrels and seals them off for an average of 48 hours.
After fermentation, the cherries are removed and pulped. After pulping, the coffee is spread on racks open dried to 3-5 days, then solar dried for the final days for a total of 25 average days drying time. Ibrahim then transfers to Mountain Harvest's temperature controlled warehouse in Mbale to rest and homogenize before milling. We find notes of florals, citrus, brown sugar, almond, and red grapes.
The Roaster:
Royal Flamingo Coffee is an award-winning micro-roaster and coffee shop in Columbus, Ohio. Husband-and-wife duo Bryan and Beth Brzozowski launched Royal Flamingo in 2021 with a mission to make serious coffee for unserious people.
They focus on carefully sourced, high-point coffees in two lanes: delicious daily drinkers and limited specialty beans that showcase new or interesting varietals, microlots, and growing/processing methods. They want to make great coffee that’s enjoyable, approachable, and (most importantly!) fun. Royal Flamingo opened its first cafe in July 2024 and has quickly earned a reputation for serving some of the best and most unique coffees in Central Ohio.
Before opening Royal Flamingo, Bryan and Beth were avid coffee drinkers. Beans from specialty coffee roasters were always on the counter. They’d build entire travel itineraries around visiting coffee shops. And it’s the great coffee shops — the baristas and roasters who were wildly generous with their knowledge — that made them want to be part of the specialty coffee world.