A EXPRESSÃO DA QUALIDADE DO CAFÉ NATURAL PRODUZIDO EM DIFERENTES AMBIENTES DA MICRORREGIÃO DA SERRA DA MANTIQUEIRA 1

The specialty coffees have a high quality standard and high potential of flavor expression. Commonly they can be differed by their origin, growing methods or specific cultivars. The environment influence on the coffee fruits, together the processing, favors obtaining single attributes of drink quality with appreciated characteristics by the consumers. Therefore, the present work aimed to evaluate the sensory quality of coffee from de micro region of Serra da Mantiqueira, haversted in different environments and processed by dry way. The experiment was carried out in factorial scheme (2x3x2) with 5 replicates, being two color skin fruit, red and yellow; three altitude ranges ( 1200m); and two slope exposure, sunny (NE, N, NO,O) and counter face (L, SE, S, SO), characterizing the environment of production. The coffee was harvested manually selecting only the ripe fruits and than dried in concrete ground until the seeds reach the humidity level of 11%(wb). In addition, the geographic coordinates of the sampled plots were registered. The sensory analysis was done by five judges accredited by the SCAA, Specialty Coffee American Association. The altitude has a straight link with the final scores of the natural coffee evaluation (p<0,05), with the highest values observed for the coffee harvested above 1200m. The natural coffees are influenced by the slope exposure being better for the counter face. The fruit skin color does not influence the quality of the coffee processed in dry way.