Mbingo Mountain Coffee, is a new Waterville coffee roasting business founded by Churchill Elangwe-Preston, officially celebrated its opening on January 19 at a Ribbon Cutting Ceremony hosted by the Mid-Maine Chamber of Commerce.
The event took place at Holy Cannoli, a café on Main Street where proprietors January and Jason Furchuck are pleased to be serving and selling the African grown coffee. The reception was well attended, illustrating both tremendous community support for Churchill and excitement about his unique coffee offerings. People sampled his coffee and purchased bags to take home. Holy Cannoli is the first eatery currently serving Mbingo Mountain Coffee and new accounts with other cafés, grocery and convenience stores are welcome.
Elangwe-Preston’s slogan, “Uplift Your Mood, Uplift Lives,” summarizes his long-time dream of creating a business that would serve two purposes: supporting small coffee farmers in Africa and providing a fresh, high quality product for coffee lovers everywhere. He moved to Maine from West Africa twenty years ago and earned an engineering degree. As a Quality Assurance Manager for a local company, he emphasized the importance of creating a product that is consistently of high quality, a standard he extends to his new adventure in the coffee roasting business.
Mbingo Mountain Coffee beans are imported from Ethiopia, Rwanda, and Uganda, having been prepared using two different processes – natural and washed. Each variety of coffee has its own hints of flavors unique to its growing region. A new addition to the company’s line is Ethiopian Guji Organic Dambi, a naturally processed bean. Rwanda Inzovu Supreme, "a smooth, mellow body with a sweet lingering aftertaste," just arrived at the port and will be in stock within the next couple of days.
Happy sipping!
Team Mbingo Mountain Coffee
