Quality and biochemical composition of Ethiopian coffee varied with growing region and locality

Abstract

Coffee quality and biochemical composition are believed to vary with geographical origin. Seed weight, quality attributes, and contents of caffeine, sucrose and chlorogenic acids of green arabica coffee beans from five coffee regions (eastern or Harar, southern, southwestern, western and northwestern regions of Ethiopia) and 24 coffee localities across the five coffee regions were evaluated. Coffee samples varied with their growing region and locality in these bean features. Coffee samples from Harar and southern regions had much higher bean physical quality (BPQ), acidity and total preliminary quality (TPQ) than those from southwestern region, but lower caffeine content than those from the remaining regions. Samples from Harar had also higher 100 seed weight, and sucrose and total chlorogenic acids (TCGAs) contents than those of the other regions. Lem-Kaffa coffee from southwestern region had much lower BPQ, TPQ and TCGAs than most of the other locality coffees and significantly differed from any of the studied locality coffees in its 100 bean weight, quality and biochemical composition. This study generally highlights the variation of Ethiopian coffee with growing region and locality, and the presence of similarity between some locality coffees across the coffee regions in their bean weight, quality and biochemical composition. • Quality and biochemical content of Ethiopian coffee varied with its growing region and locality • Biochemical contents varied more by growing region and locality than quality attributes • Harar and southern coffees had higher physical and overall quality than southwestern coffee • Harar coffee had higher bean weight, sucrose and total chlorogenic acids than others