What coffee variety is Sudan Rume? Flavor characteristics of Sudan Rume coffee beans from Qiankawa Manor

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Sudan Rume: An Extraordinary Coffee Variety

Sudan Rume is generally translated as "Rume Sudan" or "Sudan Rume." It is an extremely rare coffee variety. It made a stunning debut at a world-class competition and immediately gained fame. Unlike Geisha coffee, it didn't become widely known, but its journey to recognition is remarkably similar to Geisha coffee's. FrontStreet Coffee explores what Rume Sudan is all about.

The Origin of Sudan Rume

Clues can be gathered from its name. Similar to Geisha coffee, it originally grew as a native coffee variety in Africa, but not in Ethiopia. Instead, it was discovered in the Rume Valley of the Boma Plateau region in southeastern Sudan (now within Boma National Park in South Sudan, which gained independence in 2011, bordering western Ethiopia). This is how it earned the name Sudan Rume.

The border region between western Ethiopia and eastern South Sudan is home to vast primeval forests containing thousands of Arabica coffee varieties. Before being known to the world, Sudan Rume was just one anonymous wild coffee species in this forest. Discovered in 1942, it was known to the coffee world by the code RS-510, essentially a collection number for wild coffee varieties used for experimental purposes. For the next 50+ years, it was primarily used as a parent variety for coffee hybridization. Cross-breeding with RS-510 typically yielded varieties with excellent flavor profiles and better productivity, as RS-510 had exceptionally impressive flavor but ordinary disease resistance and very low yields. By crossing RS-510 with better coffee varieties, farmers could obtain new hybrids with higher yields, stronger disease resistance, and outstanding flavor characteristics. Many well-known modern varieties, such as Castillo and Colombia developed by Colombia's National Coffee Research Center (CENICAFE), were created using this technique.

The Modern Story of Sudan Rume

What brought RS-510 to fame under the name Sudan Rume was Australian barista Sasa, who won the 2015 World Barista Championship using Sudan Rume beans from Colombia's Las Nubes estate. Interestingly, the batch Sasa used was from Las Nubes estate's first harvest. This demonstrates the exceptional quality of this coffee variety's flavor profile.

However, Sudan Rume has significant drawbacks: its disease resistance is extremely poor (except for coffee berry disease), and its yield per plant is even lower than Typica. It requires cultivation management skills that ordinary small farmers typically cannot provide. Therefore, Sudan Rume beans currently available on the market are mostly grown in estates in Central and South America.

FrontStreet Coffee's Sudan Rume comes from Costa Rica's Coffea Diversa Garden, also elegantly nicknamed the "Thousand Coffees Garden." Unlike most coffee farms, Coffea Diversa Garden operates under a "coffee garden" business model. The estate cultivates numerous local and even exotic rare varieties and their cultivars. Notably, most of these varieties cannot be found elsewhere in the world, and this is the only place where rare varieties are commercially cultivated.

Therefore, Sudan Rume is also carefully cultivated by estate owner Gonzalo Hernández. Sudan Rume's biological characteristics include dark green broad leaves, medium branch spacing, medium internodal spacing, and small, elongated beans.

Processing Method

This Sudan Rume coffee was processed using the washed method. Selected coffee cherries are placed in a depulper to initially remove the skin and pulp; coffee beans with remaining pulp and mucilage are placed in water to ferment for about 24 hours; after fermentation, coffee beans with parchment are placed in flowing water channels to wash away the pulp and mucilage; after washing, the coffee beans are dried either by sun-drying or using mechanical dryers until the moisture content reaches approximately 12%. Finally, the parchment is removed from the coffee beans.

FrontStreet Coffee's Roasting Analysis

This bean was roasted using a light roast method to highlight its bright acidity and rich fruit notes.

Using Yangjia 700N with 300g of green beans. The beans were entered into the roaster at 175°C, with heat set to 120 and damper opened to 3. The turning point was at 1'42" with a temperature of 98.9°C. When the roaster temperature reached 140°C, the damper was opened to 4, keeping the heat unchanged. When the temperature reached 151.2°C, the bean surface turned yellow, and the grassy aroma completely disappeared, entering the dehydration stage. When the roaster temperature reached 166°C, the heat was adjusted to 110°C with the damper at 4. When the temperature reached 183.3°C, the heat remained unchanged, and the damper was opened to 5. When the temperature reached 188°C, the heat was reduced to 50, with the damper unchanged. The first crack began at 9'27", with the damper unchanged. After the first crack, it developed for 1'45" before being dropped at 194.8°C.

FrontStreet Coffee's Brewing Guide

Parameters:

Coffee amount: 15 grams

Coffee-to-water ratio: 1:16

Water temperature: 91°C

Grind size: Medium-fine (78% pass-through rate on #20 standard sieve)

Using a segmented extraction method. 30g of water is used for a 30-second bloom. When pouring water in a circular flow with a small stream to 150g, create a segment. Continue pouring to 240g when the water level is about to expose the coffee bed. Remove the filter cup when the water level is about to expose the coffee bed again (timing starts from the beginning of the bloom). The extraction time is 1'56".

Flavor Description

Bright, uplifting acidity with notes of lemon and green apple, with a full-bodied juice-like mouthfeel. A slight oolong tea sensation in the finish.

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