'Ugandan coffee is the best '

In a little corner on Bombo Road’s City Oil petrol station, customers started asking for coffee while their cars were serviced.

By Jackie Nalubwama

In a little corner on Bombo Road’s City Oil petrol station, customers started asking for coffee while their cars were serviced.

Their demand for snacks to accompany the coffee grew to the point that management thought about putting that corner to use. Thus the story of Café Javas began in 2005, says Café Javas Director Yasir Ahmed.

Since then, coffee drinking in Uganda has grown by leaps and bounds that Javas now has seven locations: Oasis Mall (2009), Bakuli (early 2011), Nakawa (mid 2011), Kisementi (December 2012), Victoria Mall, Entebbe (December 2014) and Kampala Boulevard along Kampala Road (this year).

“Coffee drinking is huge as people are getting the taste for coffee,” says Ahmed despite earlier scepticism that a café would not work if it did not serve alcohol.

“A lot of people were asking how it will work; we don’t sell alcohol. But coffee places like Javas are family-oriented, where parents can enjoy with their children,” he says.

Ahmed is positive about cafés that serve coffee, saying “they are doing well and there are a lot of respectable cafés in Uganda”.

However, he cautions that it is not a booming business; it is one that takes time, patience and hard work.

“We started with Bombo Road then we took time before we opened. It is a good business that takes a long time,” says Ahmed, adding, “There are challenges in the economy right now.”

He notes though that it has room for growth and improvement if only Ugandans embraced advertising aggressively as their Kenyan neighbours.

“To grow the business, first, we need to serve really good coffee. The other is to get word out there through advertising and discussing coffee,” says Ahmed.

He reveals that Ugandan coffee is the best in the world because our Arabica coffee is “strong and bold”, making it distinct but it is let down by inadequate advertising.

Nevertheless, Ahmed says that Ugandan cafés serve good coffee. At Javas for example, their coffee is made per order and not already brewed.

John Samanya, Javas Kisementi’s barista, makes a coffee per order from scratch. The coffee beans are in a machine and ready to be ground when a customer places an order. The ground coffee is then put in the machine that makes that very one cup the customer ordered.

“We get our beans fresh and we have a secret blend,” says Ahmed, “When it comes to coffee, freshness is key.”

Although Javas offers an array of coffee, Ahmed says Javas’ house coffee is the most popular coffee customers have, which is basically white coffee (coffee with milk). Other coffees served at the café include: espresso, cappuccino, latte and specials with syrups such as vanilla, hazelnut and cinnamon.

To achieve the standard that Ahmed describes as “excellent”, he explains that staff is trained for six months or even a year by Javas chefs so as to achieve consistency of service in all the branches.

“Someone has to be trained in-house by executive chefs that move around [the different locations},” he explains, “We give them a lot of training that has high standards.”

That, Ahmed says, is why they take time to start operating a new branch.

As a Ugandan business, Javas Café offers customers a bigger chance of acting upon their feedback.

“We have a personal relationship with our customers who give us feedback. People know the owners of the café and they call with complaints or comments unlike some restaurants,” he says.

And besides serving good coffee, Javas also serves students with internship placements or part-time jobs.

“We have a relationship with Jimmy Sekasi School of Catering so its students come for internship at Javas and we train them,” says Ahmed, who says that good interns are retained.

“A lot of our waiters are in university [Makerere University] because we are flexible; evening students work in the day.”