• • • Producer Nano Challo Cooperative memebers (smallholder farmers of Genji Challo).
    • Attributes landraces
    • Origin Limu, Jimma, Ethiopia
    • Flavours pristine washed Ethiopia flavours –
      tea notes, citrus blossom sherbet, chocolate,

We at Small Batch first came across the coffee of Nano Challa while attending coffee trade shows in the US, especially when they were held on the West Coast in the late 2000s and early 2010s. From Australia’s Speciality Coffee perspective, this was back in the primordial pre-cursor days to the commoditised specialty coffee epoch in which we now reside. Back then, sourcing and relationships, especially in Ethiopia, were semi-mythical, washing stations were found by poring over maps showing elevation, and so incipient was the differentiation of coffee to the washing station level that this coffee, famed through attachment to Duane Sorenson’s Portland-based “Stumptown Coffee Roasters”, the coffee of Nano Challa was never available because those guys had first dibs on it.

This was only recently after (NGO) Technoserve’s work in Jimma had begun: work that would culminate over a 5-10 year period into dozens of well-organized, quality-focused cooperatives, with leaders trained in admin, coffee production and market access. Coffee production, previously marginal (sold to local agents as cheaper, naturally-processed coffee), began to be transformed into pristine washed coffees of profiles that had never before seen the light of day . Producers began to be remunerated first when cherries were delivered to the mill, and secondly when the coffee was sold abroad, with proceeds distributed proportional to cherries delivered. Large US roasters began to seemingly fight over access to these new coffees. It was transformative for the industry and for the lives of Ethiopian coffee farmers.

Perhaps it’s no surprise that our Ethiopian coffee sourcing journey started with the Kata Muduga Farmer’s Cooperative Union, under whose banner this coffee from Nano Challo Cooperative finds it way into the world. We too lined up to learn what we could, to figure out how to become a partner.  We have purchased from many Keta Muduga supported cooperatives over the years since 2017 .. Hunda Oli, Sedi Loya, Duromina, Kenisa, and now, we’re stoked to release Nano Challa.From 25 members in 2004, Nana Challa now boasts over 625 farmer contributors, and they have a third washing station site imminent. Thank god too. It seems the world can’t get enough.