It is no surprise that many of our most popular filter coffees tend to be washed Ethiopians so it made sense to keep one on hand for the end of year celebrations. Similar to the bottles of bubbles about to be popped, the Nano Challa is sleek, sparkling and fun.

Started in 2004 as a small cooperative of only 25 members, Nano Challa’s status and membership improved dramatically in 2010 when it became part of an NGO project championed by Technoserve. Technoserve selected Nano Challa for funding and assistance in building the first washing station in the area. In equipping cooperative groups with their own processing facilities, the Agaro region has pioneered a new style of Ethiopian coffees now coveted for a unique combination of spice, floral and stone fruit flavours.

The Nano Challa cooperative now processes and represents the coffee of more than 400 local producers in the Agaro region of Western Ethiopia. With the majority of these members presiding over small farms of roughly 3 hectares they hand harvest and deliver their own cherries to the central washing station. These are initially floated to sort by density before eco-pulpers remove the fruit and skin. The remaining beans are then soaked in clean water overnight before spending 2 weeks slowly drying on raised beds. Each day-lot of coffee is kept separate and, with a more liberal Ethiopian trade policy, the cooperative is now able to sell these directly traceable lots to exporters and bypass the Ethiopian Commodity Exchange.