Chemical profile and sensory perception of coffee produced in agroforestry management

Ecological sustainability, productivity, and sensory quality of coffee fruits are important variables for coffee cultivation in agroforestry systems (AFSs). There is an appreciation of the ecological interactions between agricultural crops and native plants in the AFS. Coffea arabica L. is a shrub with geographic origins in the tropical forests of Africa. Thus, the production of coffee in AFSs can be an interesting alternative. In this study, we present the sensory and chemical profile of coffee grown in three AFSs in the Macico do Baturite region, Ceara, Brazil and submitted to five types of post-harvest processing. This region has been producing arabica coffee for more than 200 years under forest conditions similar to the ecological characteristics of the geographical center of coffee with shadows produced by native plant species. The coffee fruits were obtained from an AFS with coffee cultivated in the natural/wild system, an AFS in conversion to syntropic, and a conventional AFS. The syntropic AFS and the natural/wild AFS had the highest sensory scores. With the exception of conventional AFS, spontaneous fermentations in covered terrain had higher total scores than fermentations carried out in sealed polyethylene containers. In the sensory panel, the body attribute contributed to the sensory discrimination of fermentation processes by wet and dry methods. Lipids, caffeine, carboxylic acids, and chlorogenic acids were responsible for the chemical differentiation of AFSs Therefore, AFSs and fermentation processes influence the chemical and sensory quality of coffee beans.