Effects of slope exposure, altitude and yield on coffee quality in two altitude terroirs of Costa Rica, Orosi and Santa María de Dota

Abstract

This study assessed the effects of slope exposure, altitude and yield on several cup quality criteria of coffees from two altitude terroirs of Costa Rica, Orosi (between 1020 and 1250 m above sea level) and Santa María de Dota (between 1550 and 1780 m above sea level). East-facing slopes gave beverages with generally superior attributes, probably owing to better exposure to morning sunlight. These beverages were mainly more acid: at Orosi an acidity score of 2.73 out of 5 was obtained (3.64 for Santa María de Dota) for eastern exposures, as opposed to 2.36 on average (3.28 for Santa María de Dota) for other exposures. In addition, a positive relation was found between altitude and taster preferences in both terroirs. A negative relation was also found between yield and beverage acidity at Santa María de Dota, where some coffee trees produced up to 13 kg of coffee cherry. Coffees from Orosi were characterised by a floral flavour, which depended on slope exposure, whilst coffees from Santa María de Dota displayed a chocolate taste, which was more marked at high altitude. In both terroirs the caffeine, trigonelline, fat, sucrose and chlorogenic acid contents were not well correlated with the sensory characteristics.

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“…On the other hand, Avelino et al (2005) evaluated the quality of coffee beverage of Costa Rica at altitudes between 1,000 and 1,800 m and found that the crops grown in the areas facing East produced coffees with superior quality.…”

“…Other studies also reported the existence of a relationship between altitude and quality of coffee beverage, such as those performed by Guyot et al (1996), Serrano & Castrillón (2002), Decazy et al (2003), Silva et al (2004), Avelino et al (2005) and Dal Molin et al (2008).…”

“…Various factors affect coffee quality, and environmental factors such as altitude and sun exposure are among the most important ones (Guyot et al, 1996;Decazy et al, 2003;Avelino et al, 2005;Alves, 2005;Bernardes et al, 2012).…”

Inferring Missing Climate Data for Agricultural Planning Using Bayesian Networks

“…The prevalence of high water vapor contents and tropical Land 2018, 7, 4 3 of 13 temperatures leads to a high relative humidity [26,27]. The climatic conditions are favorable for coffee production, and most countries in the region are recognized for their high-quality coffee and shaded coffee systems [28][29][30][31][32], together producing more than 10% of the total global coffee supply [33,34]. However, projections of climate change show that the region is likely to experience severe alterations in climate in the future, which may negatively impact coffee production [35][36][37].…”

Calidad física y sensorial de Coffea arábica L. variedad Colombia, perfil Nespresso AAA, en la Unión, Nariño

“…El factor 2, estuvo conformado principalmente por las variables temperatura ambiente (10,5), humedad relativa (7,8), horas de fermentación (8,1), peso de café lavado (8,6), horas de secado al sol (10,5), porcentaje de merma (10,4), mientras que el factor 3, está representado en su mayoría por las variables aroma (9,3), cuerpo (18,7) y puntaje (18,9). (Tabla 7).…”