ABSTRACT
The harvest of green coffee fruits affects their quality; they should be separated from the ripe fruits during processing. The proportion of harvested green fruits can be high, requiring information and technologies to adequately manage and add value to coffee beans from this fruit category. The objective of this work was to evaluate the quality of coffee beans from green fruits separated during a wet processing and peeled after temporary immersion in water. A completely randomized design was used, consisting of six treatments (ripe peeled coffee fruits dried on suspended yards, non-peeled green coffee fruits under traditional dry management on a concrete yard, and peeled and non-peeled green coffee fruits temporarily immersed in water and dried on suspended and concrete yards) and four replications, in the 2018 crop season. Samples of coffee beans temporarily immersed in water were peeled and separated into peeled and non-peeled fractions and dried in suspended and concrete yards. The peeling yield of green coffee beans and the physical and sensorial characteristics of the processed coffee beans were evaluated. The mean peeling yield was 62% and allowed the separation of more developed green fruits, equating them to ripe peeled coffee beans regarding physical and sensorial quality.
Key words:
coffee production; post-harvest; immature fruits; coffee classification