Potencial para expresso de cafés especiais do Sul de Minas: avaliação física, química e sensorial

Abstract

Coffee is one of the beverages most consumed all over the world. Due to that, there is a growing concern about its quality. The preparation of an espresso coffee requires high quality raw matter, for its extraction is accomplished with high pressure and temperature, extracting substances present in the beans. The present work was carried out with the purpose of verifying the potential of specialty coffees for espresso coffee production. Twenty samples of coffees (Coffea arabica L.), certified by the Programa Certifica Minas Café, with scores of sensorial analyses of 80 to 90 points, obtained by the dry via (natural) and moist via (peeled cherry coffee, desmucilated cherry coffee and depulped cherry coffee – CDs) processes - 2011/2012 crop of the region South of Minas, were utilized. The procedure obtained from each sample did not influence the sensorial quality of the espresso coffee. The attribute body proved highly correlated with the attribute sweetness and the attributes acidity and flavor were also correlated with the crema (foam) color of the espressos. The coffees which presented the best scorings in the surveyed sensorial attributes resulted into best espresso beverages.