Coffee sensory quality study based on spatial distribution in the Mantiqueira mountain region of Brazil

The aim of the study was to determine the sensory quality of the coffee cultivated in the Mantiqueira region of Brazil (Minas Gerais State) and to identify its main descriptors. The sensory quality of red and yellow coffee fruit varieties (Coffea arabica L.) grown in environments with different slopes, at altitudes ranging from 932 to 1,391 m, was analyzed in three different crop seasons. The dry processing method and the wet processing method, based on mechanical removal of skin and mucilage, were used. The variables were analyzed through correspondence analysis. There was no correspondence with sample discrimination between the direction the slope face and coffee sensory profile. The sensory characteristics of coffee such as flavor, acidity, body and sweetness correspond to the cultivation environment with altitudes above 1,050 m. However, for the red coffee fruit varieties, that correspondence only occurred when subjected to a wet-processing method. The quality of the coffee as a micro-region product was identified in this study at altitudes above 1,050 m. This effect was not found in natural red coffee fruit varieties. Practical Applications Environmental aspects such as latitude, longitude, altitude and slope, as well as different coffee varieties and processing methods were analyzed in consecutive crop seasons, based on multivariate logistic regression and correspondence analysis techniques. The impacts of different methods of coffee production and processing on beverage quality have been debated for years and will surely continue to be studied in the coming decades, mainly because it is a phenomenon of high complexity. The variations in the sensory profile of coffee produced in different countries or microregions, or even at different planting sites, are noteworthy.