Abstract
Coffee farming in Mexico is an activity of great economic, social, cultural, and environmental importance. One of the strategies for obtaining better prices is so-called "specialty coffees", whose quality is evaluated through the "cup of excellence" contest. The aim of this work was to identify if there are factors related to the quality of coffee, based on the data provided by this contest. Information was obtained for the period 2012 to 2019 (since the event was suspended in 2020), but given the heterogeneity in the data, exclusion, and inclusion criteria were applied, examining only the years 2017 to 2019. Descriptive analyses show that, in Mexico, the coffee producing states of Veracruz and Chiapas predominate the highest scores, possibly because they are regions with the highest presence of biodiversity, which favors the quality of the coffee. A simple linear regression model also noted that quantitative variables (altitude, temperature, and precipitation) do not affect cup quality. Finally, a square chi analysis showed that the factors that affect the score are the process and mixing of varieties, which establish differences in the sensory characteristics of coffee, observing dependence between the two. It is concluded that the latter influence the score, where the washing process is best suited for coffees with an extraordinary quality profile, as well as the use of one or three varieties (particularly Arabica type) and that environmental and site components do not have a decisive effect on coffee cup quality. Keywords: Coffea arabica; coffee quality; score “cup of excellence” contest.
Highlights
Mexico is the tenth-largest coffee producer worldwide, supplying a quarter of market demand, and is the leading producer of organic coffee (Servicio de Información Agroalimentaria y Pesquera - SIAP, 2018)
The information was obtained through the Asociación Mexicana de la Cadena Productiva del Café, A.C. (AMECAFE). which together with the Alliance for Coffee Excellence (ACE) is responsible for the development of the “Cup of Excellence” (COE) contest in Mexico
The “Cup of Excellence” contest has 20 years to be held worldwide, in Mexico only the seventh edition goes, so its recent creation has generated that the statistics are not homogeneous and the data and components involved are dispersed or in some cases absent, with the information obtained it can be seen that there are various factors involved in the quality of the coffee (Table 1)
Summary
Mexico is the tenth-largest coffee producer worldwide, supplying a quarter of market demand, and is the leading producer of organic coffee (Servicio de Información Agroalimentaria y Pesquera - SIAP, 2018). Quality itself is a difficult concept to define, as it depends on various standards and market types, but in this case, it can be described as consumer satisfaction, by the outstanding characteristics and unique flavor profiles of coffee in the cup, compared to conventional standards (Oliveira et al, 2013, Ufer; Lin; Ortega, 2019) In such a way that the quality in a specialty coffee is the result of a large number of factors, involving characteristics of the producing region such as altitude, climate, and soils (Taveira et al, 2015; Toledo et al, 2016; Abubakar et al, 2019), agricultural practices (shadow, pruning, fertilization and varieties used) (Vaast et al, 2006), planting design and density (Dos Santos et al, 2018), maturity and uniformity in the harvest (Joët et al, 2010; Toledo et al, 2016; Peñuela-Martínez; Zapata-Zapata; Durango-Restrepo, 2018), processing (wet, dry or variants of these such as honey), storage conditions (Vaast et al, 2006), roasting (considered as one of the most important, since in this process the chemical properties of the coffee beans are modified, resulting in the taste and aroma of the beverage) (Abubakar et al, 2019; Rocha; Coqueiro; Valderrama, 2019; Dos Santos et al, 2018) and the preparation of the infusion (Craig et al, 2018; Giacalonea et al, 2019)
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