Biochemistry allows new beneficiation that increases acidity and coffee aroma

This month, two coffees with bold sensory characteristics, tongues of the doldrums.
They have in common two types of acid: lactic and phosphoric - the last, a first in this country drink. The first leaves the mouth soft, velvety, the second pleasantly viscous.
Excluding nonsense ingredients of comparison, it's like if you left a piece of butter in the mouth dancing while taking a sip of Coke with a twist of lemon.
Pronounced acidity, until then, was the dearest thing in Kenyan coffee, considered one of the best in the world precisely because of its complexity on the palate. Brazilian beans, on the other hand, have always been noted for high sweetness.
It was thanks to a biochemical feature that Brazilian producers managed to produce beverages with similar sensory profile of Kenyans.
After harvesting, the fruits are in fermentation tanks where yeast is added, fungi which process sugars and help form acids and aromatic compounds. One of the coffees comes from Fazenda Santa Margarida, in San Manuel (SP), the other from Chapadão de Ferro in Patrocínio (MG).
"In Kenya, phosphoric acid occurs naturally in plants. But now we can, with the incorporation of applied biochemistry, open a door to a new model of Brazilian coffee," says consultant Ensei Neto, who conducted experiments in Chapadão de Ferro.
"Innovation in coffee is given in cycles. In the 2000s, occurred a process in which farmers entered the roasting of beans. Now began to realize that this is not enough and started to look again for the farming, to understand that the most wonderful flavours of the coffee are produced when the seed is alive – i.e., before roasting", explains Ensei Neto.
In Santa Margarida, tests with prolonged fermentation began six years ago, empirically driven by the owner, Mariano Martins. It was not until this season that he had the experience of a microbiologist who, by contract, cannot reveal in which European university works.
The result was complex coffees obtained from two fermentation parameters: one for 48 hours and another 72. First, the "velvet touch" has an interesting acidity, but moderate in comparison with the other. Leaves the mouth unctuous, creamy.
The second, the "acid lover", as the name suggests, is for anyone who loves pronounced acidity. Both also draw attention by floral aromas - the development of aromatic compounds is another benefit of this type of processing.
Source: Revista Cafeicultura