Relação entre o processamento de pós-colheita e atributos químicos e sensoriais de café de três locais de Minas Gerais

Abstract

Brazilian coffee growers are becoming more and more concerned about the production of high quality coffees, with the purpose of producing special coffees, adding value to the final product. The production of special coffees gains force in the world market pleasing the palate of different consumers. Coffee beans have their intrinsic attributes modified by local characteristics such as altitude, temperature, lightness, rainfall index and relative humidity where the crop is located. Together with the climatic conditions of the place, the method of processing the grains by dry (producing natural coffee), wet (peeled coffees), moist with fermentation (pulped coffee) and wet desmucilador demultipled), confers changes in the quality of the grains produced. The objective of this study was to evaluate the relationship between post-harvest processing and the chemical and sensorial attributes of coffee from three locations in Minas Gerais. The coffees of the different regions presented their own characteristics, which are conferred according to the type of processing to which the grains are submitted in the post-harvest period. The samples of peeled coffees from the three regions studied presented higher scores for the sensorial attributes, compared to samples of natural coffees. The chemical analysis of coffee supports, however does not replace the sensorial analysis aiming at the classification of coffee beverage quality.