Abstract
Coffee cup quality is primarily determined by the type and variety of green beans chosen and the roasting regime used. Furthermore, green coffee beans are not only the starting point for the production of all coffee beverages but also are a major source of revenue for many sub-tropical countries. Green bean quality is directly related to its biochemical composition which is influenced by genetic and environmental factors. Post-harvest, on-farm processing methods are now particularly recognised as being influential to bean chemistry and final cup quality. However, research on green coffee has been limited and results are fragmented. Despite this, there are already indications that multiple factors play a role in determining green coffee chemistry – including plant cultivation/fruit ripening issues and ending with farmer practices and post-harvest storage conditions. Here, we provide the first overview of the knowledge determined so far specifically for pre-factory, green coffee composition. In addition, the potential of coffee waste biomass in a biobased economy context for the delivery of useful bioactives is described as this is becoming a topic of growing relevance within the coffee industry. We draw attention to a general lack of consistency in experimentation and reporting and call for a more intensive and united effort to build up our knowledge both of green bean composition and also how perturbations in genetic and environmental factors impact bean chemistry, crop sustainability and ultimately, cup quality.
Highlights
Coffee is not a nutritional staple crop, for many people across the world its products are considered a daily necessity
Farah & Donangelo, (2006) trying to address this stated that in sour and black defective beans, 3-caffeoylquinic acids (CQAs), 4-caffeoylquinic acid (4-CQA) and 4-fer uloylquinic acids (FQAs) increased by 25% when compared to levels in standard quality beans
A higher titratable acidity (TTA) is directly related to a lower brew quality (Barbosa et al, 2019; Kwon et al, 2015), and the ratio between sucrose and TTA is considered a potential determinant of green bean quality
Summary
Coffee is not a nutritional staple crop, for many people across the world its products are considered a daily necessity. Gaps in our knowledge are exposed and proposals are made as to how we should progress in this field in order to design strategies for a more sustainable coffee production with effective and efficient use of all (waste) materials and which delivers high quality green beans with the best chemical composition. All this is aimed to meet the growing demands of the ever-expanding, coffee-drinking public for sustainability as well as quality
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