Impact of post-harvest treatments on physicochemical and sensory characteristics of coffee beans in Huila, Colombia

Post-harvest methods applied on coffee cherries processing impact the resulting physicochemical characteristics, and the roasting modulates the beans composition, influencing their sensory analysis. Thus, this work studied the influence of different post-harvest methods (dry, wet and semi-dry) and roasting intensity on the physicochemical characteristics, antioxidant capacity (DPPH, ABTS) and bioactive compounds content of coffee (C. arabica L. var. Colombia) samples. Additionally, sensory attributes were determined. The results showed that the degree of roasting modified strongly all the investigated parameters, mainly colour, antioxidant capacity and 5-hydroxymethylfurfural content. Furthermore, the Principal Components Analysis (PCA) explained 87.4 % of the variability of the samples and the results of the antioxidants and hydroxymethylfurfural are related to the roasting degree, while the pH and the chlorogenic acids content allow discriminating the green samples. Finally, the post-harvest methods determined the sensory profile, resulting in coffees with highly differentiated characteristics and classified as "Specialty coffee".