La Josefina Sudán Rumé / Natural Extended Fermentation

1. What does La Josefina Sudán Rumé taste like?

La Josefina Sudán Rumé is juicy, bold, and wonderfully expressive, with notes of natural wine, rich cacao, and cherry cordial. Roasted light, it brings together vibrant fruit, deep sweetness, and layered aromatics in a cup that keeps evolving as you drink it. The result is wild and complex, yet remarkably clean—a coffee made for curious palates.

2. What makes this coffee so special?

This coffee starts with Sudán Rumé, a rare and distinctive coffee variety, and pairs it with the experimental processing that has become a signature of La Josefina Estate.

Leopoldo Andrade and Ligia Merizalde use an extended anaerobic fermentation to push the coffee’s fruit character and complexity while maintaining beautiful clarity. The result is a cup that feels bold, unexpected, and full of personality—the kind of coffee that reminds us just how much there is to discover in coffee.

3. Who are Leopoldo Andrade and Ligia Merizalde?

Leopoldo and Ligia are the producers behind La Josefina Estate in Ecuador, a pioneering farm focused on rare coffee varieties, experimental fermentation, and meticulous processing.

Their approach is rooted in curiosity: How much flavor can a remarkable variety express when every detail is considered? Through careful experimentation and a deep understanding of their coffees, they create lots that are fruit-forward, complex, and incredibly distinctive.

For us, working with producers like Leopoldo and Ligia is about more than finding exceptional coffees—it’s about building relationships with people who keep exploring, learning, and pushing coffee forward.

4. What is extended anaerobic fermentation, and how does it shape this coffee?

This is where Sudán Rumé gets especially exciting. The coffee undergoes a 120-hour anaerobic fermentation in whole cherry, meaning the coffee cherries ferment in a low-oxygen environment where the process can be carefully controlled. After fermentation, the coffee is slow-dried for 30 days.

That extended process helps develop the coffee’s intense fruit, deep sweetness, and layered aromatics, giving us those distinctive natural wine, cacao, and cherry cordial notes. It’s expressive and adventurous, but still beautifully clean—a wonderful example of how thoughtful processing can completely transform the experience in your cup.

5. What’s the best way to brew La Josefina Sudán Rumé?

With a coffee this expressive, brewing is part of the adventure. We recommend brewing it as pour over, drip, AeroPress, or french press.

We especially love it as a pour over, where its natural wine character, juicy cherry, and layered aromatics have room to open up. If you want to lean into its deeper cacao sweetness and fuller texture, try a French press. And be sure to taste it as it cools—the flavors can shift dramatically from hot to warm to cool. This is a coffee made to surprise you, so take your time and enjoy the discovery.