Sudan Rume is a seed collection from South Sudan's Boma Plateau made in 1941, prized as a breeding parent for coffee berry disease resistance.
Sudan Rume (also Rume Sudan) traces to seed collected in 1941 by A.S. Thomas on the Boma Plateau, in what is now South Sudan near the Ethiopian border. The material went to East African research stations and reached the CATIE collection in Costa Rica in 1953. Its main breeding value is resistance to coffee berry disease, which is why it sits in the male parentage of Kenya's Ruiru 11 and Batian, and it is a parent of Centroamericano (crossed with T5296). On the farm it is low yielding and susceptible to leaf rust.
A 2021 study found that wild Boma plants are genetically distinct from Ethiopian arabica, but the CATIE Rume accessions group with cultivated varieties, so the cultivated Rume may be diluted or mislabelled. Specialty lots are described as sweet and floral, with citrus, stone fruit and berry notes.
Field notes
- i
A 2021 study found the wild arabica of the Boma Plateau is genetically distinct from Ethiopian arabica, yet the Rume Sudan kept in the CATIE collection groups with ordinary cultivars.
- ii
Sasa Sestic used a carbonic-maceration Sudan Rume to win the 2015 World Barista Championship, which brought the variety to wide attention.
Family tree
In the cup, according to guides
- SweetnessMoreOzone Coffee describes good Sudan Rume lots as often showing pronounced sweetness and acidity with floral and fruit character.
Grown in
- South Sudanorigin
- Colombia
Offspring
Sources · 4 Every sentence here was checked against a source we read. Taste notes are what guides describe, not promises about your bag. Last revised 2026-11-11. Some details here are less settled than others.
- Sudan Rume Coffee: Wild Origins and Genetic Legacy · Ozone Coffee Roasters
- Validating South Sudan as a Center of Origin for Coffea arabica: Implications for Conservation and Coffee Crop Improvement · Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems, Krishnan et al. 2021
- Ruiru 11 · World Coffee Research
- Batian · World Coffee Research