Drying of hulled naturally processed coffee with high moisture content and its impacts on quality

This study aimed to propose a new method to reduce the time needed for coffee processing and drying and to verify this method’s possible impact on both the sensorial and physiological qualities of coffee. The method, which entails hulling coffee with different moisture contents by removing the entire pericarp before completing the drying, reduced the operating time by more than 50% as compared to the normal drying of natural process coffees. The temperatures used for drying the hulled coffee did not compromise its quality; coffee hulled with 36 ± 2% (w.b.) resulted in higher sensory analysis scores; and coffee hulled with higher moisture content yielded a better physical appearance. Key words: Mechanical drying, Coffea arabica L., processing, physiological and sensory quality.