Ethiopia Banko Chelchele

Gedeb, Ethiopia | Supernatural Anaerobic Natural

Bellus Profile: Bright & Adventurous

Some coffees are familiar. Others show you just how far coffee can go.

This microlot comes from smallholder farmers surrounding the Banko Chelchele community in Gedeb, Ethiopia, where coffees are known for remarkable fruit character, florality, and clarity. This particular lot takes that natural potential even further through an unusual processing method locally referred to as “Supernatural.”

Freshly harvested coffee cherries are carefully sorted before undergoing a 24 hour anaerobic fermentation in whole cherry. From there, they are moved to raised beds and dried naturally in the sun for several weeks. The result is an intensely expressive coffee with the kind of fruit character that can challenge what you expect coffee to taste like.

Across evaluations of this lot, berries and deep purple fruits appear again and again. Strawberry and raspberry jam, blackberry, pomegranate, grape, citrus, florals, honey, and candy like sweetness emerge alongside deeper notes of cacao and dessert.

Despite all of that intensity, this coffee is not simply loud for the sake of being loud. There is clarity underneath the fruit, substantial sweetness, and enough body to give the cup structure. Depending on roast and brew approach, it can move from bright, juicy, and candy like toward something rounder, jammy, and almost dessert like.

This is exactly why Bright & Adventurous exists at Bellus.

You do not have to prefer coffees like this to appreciate what they can show you. There is no prize for having the most adventurous palate. But if you are curious about how dramatically origin, fermentation, and careful processing can change what coffee tastes like, Banko Chelchele is an invitation to explore the far end of the spectrum.

Taste it. Decide what you notice. Decide what you like.

That part belongs to you.

Preliminary Flavor Notes

Strawberry Jam • Pomegranate • Blackberry

Final tasting notes will be established as we complete our Bellus roast profile.

Who It's For

For those who want to explore the more expressive side of specialty coffee. Expect pronounced fruit, lively acidity, substantial sweetness, and flavors that may feel very different from a traditional cup.

If you normally gravitate toward chocolate forward coffee, this can be an opportunity to experience the other end of the Bellus spectrum. If bright and fruit driven coffees are already where your palate feels at home, this is the kind of microlot made for you.

Neither preference is the right one. That's the point.

About the Coffee

Producer: Smallholder farmers organized around EDN Ethiopian Coffee

Community: Banko Chelchele

District: Gedeb

Zone: Gedeo

Country: Ethiopia

Elevation: 1,900 to 2,000 masl

Cultivar: Local Arabica landraces and heirloom cultivars

Process: 24 hour anaerobic whole cherry fermentation followed by natural sun drying on raised beds

Harvest: November 2025 to January 2026

A Final Invitation

Coffee can be chocolatey and comforting. It can be balanced and sweet.

And sometimes it can taste remarkably like berries, grape candy, flowers, jam, and things you never expected to find in a cup of coffee.

We think there should be room for all of it.

Banko Chelchele represents the adventurous end of that idea. Not a better way to experience coffee, but a very different one.

You don't need to understand anaerobic fermentation, Ethiopian landraces, or extraction percentages before taking the first sip.

Start with the coffee. We'll help you explore from there.

Roasted in Bloomsburg, PA.