Tarcísio Lima Filho

Características físico-químicas de bebidas de café tipo expresso preparadas a partir de blends de café arábica e conilon

In recent years, there has been a growing interest for exquisite beverages such as espresso coffee. Espresso coffee requires a high content of the aqueous extract to ensure a good body of the beverage, which can be obtained using coffee conilon. Espirito Santo State is the largest producer of conilon coffee in Brazil. Although there are several studies on the physico-chemical composition of Brazilian coffee, there is a lack of information about the use of conilon from Espirito Santo in the formulation of blends with Arabica coffee, as well as the physico-chemical characteristics of espresso coffee beverage obtained with these blends. The objective of this study was to carry out the physico-chemical characterization of espresso coffee beverage made ​​from blends of arabica and conilon coffees (in arabica and conilon proportions of 100:0; 80:20; 60:40; 40:20 and 0:100, respectively) with different types of processing (dry process and semi dry process) produced in Espirito Santo. The variables moisture, pH, titratable acidity and aqueous extract of the samples were analyzed. It was found that the use of conilon in blends with Arabica, in the two forms of processing, results in beverages with higher levels of pH, lower acidity and higher percentage of aqueous extract. A higher percentage of aqueous extract is interesting for the preparation of espresso coffee. The results demonstrate the feasibility of using conilon coffee in blends with Arabica coffee in brewing espresso coffee, when a higher aqueous extract beverage is desired.