Kenyan Varieties
Adumu AB is a mixed-variety regional lot from Central Kenya. Coffees from one or several producing areas are combined for their cup profile, but the individual cultivars in this selection have not been identified.
Kenya’s best-known Arabica varieties include SL28 and SL34, selected at the Scott Agricultural Laboratories during the 1930s. SL28 is recognised for drought tolerance and strong quality potential, while SL34 also offers high quality potential but is more vulnerable to coffee berry disease. Ruiru 11 and Batian were developed later in Kenya to combine quality with greater resistance to coffee berry disease and coffee leaf rust. These varieties form an important part of Kenya’s coffee landscape, although their presence in Adumu AB has not been confirmed.
Washed Process
Ripe coffee cherries are selectively hand-picked and delivered to local wet mills on the same day. They are sorted to remove inferior fruit before being pulped, fermented and washed.
The parchment coffee is slowly sun-dried on raised beds. It is turned regularly and protected from the harsh midday sun to support even drying. Once dried and conditioned, the coffee is sent to a dry mill for secondary processing and graded to select the AB beans.
At the dry mill, the beans are sorted by size and density. Adumu is separated as an AB grade, the medium-sized flat-bean category used in Kenya. AB describes the physical size of the green coffee rather than its cup quality.
