Techno Peach ~ local landraces from Nano Genji, Agaro, Ethiopia

Producers: smallholders organized around Nano Genji washing station and members of the Kata Muduga cooperative union
Place: Agaro, Ethiopia
Varieties: local landrace
Processing: Washed
Importer: Red Fox
Harvest: Dec-Jan 2022/23
Tasting notes: buttery, peach tea, floral honey

Buttery & bright, reminiscent of peach cobbler and floral honey, these delicate local landrace varieties are grown by smallholders in the Nano Genji Cooperative, located in the forests of Gera, near Agaro, Ethiopia. Picked and processed with soil, water, and biodiversity in mind, coffees coming from the forests in Agaro represents some of the few semi-wild coffees remaining in the ancestral lands of Ethiopia.

Nano Genji is a special cooperative, located around the Agaro area of Ethiopia in the west of the country. Coffee from Kata Muduga Cooperative Union need no introduction today, but if you had looked ten to fifteen years ago, the Agaro area, in general, wasn’t invested in the international market. What ended up happening was USAID’s Technoserve project collaborated with Agaro—who previously was supplying the local market with grade five sundried naturals (not exportable coffee)—with new processing equipment and focused on a five-year program to support and provide guidance for producing exportable washed coffee (Grades one and two – The ones you get from us). The people who live and work with this cooperative have harnessed their talents and ability to organize to such a masterful level. The coffees they produce each year are a reflection of that.

For the first 5-6 years of operation, Oromia Union held the export license for Nano Challa and neighbouring cooperatives (Duromina, etc.), and that came with challenges and frustrations that eventually compelled the Agaro and Gera area coops to form their union to have full control over the export process.

Under the leadership of the Kata Muduga cooperative union, these folks work together to continue the incredible reputation for top quality washed coffees from this region that are very well known around the world at this point. Nano Genji is a demonstration of the success from Technoserve’s initial investment, as a spin-off from Nano Challa who led their coop masterfully, processing immaculate, forest-grown coffees in their ancestral environment (an incredible rarity), with a focus on stewarding the ecosystems where they live and work.

Gera landrace selection from the folks at Nano Genji cooperative, this is a collective of folks just outside Agaro, towards the west of Ethiopia, not far off from the fabled birthplace of coffee in nearby Keffa. Coffees from these forest stewards represent some of the last remaining places where coffee is cultivated in a naturalized forest environment. There’s often honey cultivated in the forests here too with wicker cylindrical tubes perched in the tree canopy, inviting bees to come make a home and produce what is, honestly, the most jasmine heavy, complex honey I’ve ever had in my life. The coffees grown here are the best approximation for me for now 🙂

After Penagos processing equipment mechanically removes most of the fruit and mucilage from the seeds (depulping), the seeds are soaked in water overnight in fibreglass tanks, allowing any remaining sticky mucilage to be broken down by enzymatic activity so that it can be easily washed away from their surface leaving a perfectly clean coffee by the time they hit the drying beds for the eight-plus days they’ll need to dry.