Differentiating coffees through the notion of terroirs allows us to determine potential areas for specialty coffee production and to characterize the type of coffee in these areas, exploring their potential. The objective of this work was to study spatial variability quality and to characterize and delimit terroirs in coffee crop production in Araponga municipality, Minas Gerais State, Brazil, using sensorial evaluation. The data were collected from four crops, from altitudes ranging from 770 to 1270 m, with the extract increasing from low to high. In each plot of crops, samples of cherry fruits were collected, dried, benefited, subjected to sensorial analysis and given grades ranging from 0 to 100 points for the global drink quality and relative characteristics of honey, body, acidity, flavor and equilibrium. The spatial variability of the quality was analyzed using the Moran Index. To define coffee production terroirs, average quality grades were compared through separation tests and the individual values of the plots were subjected to an analysis of groupings. The study was efficient in identifying terroirs for mountain coffee culture, therefore allowing coffees to be differentiated as a function of their production locations. Araponga has more than one coffee production terroir characterized by two distinct altitude extracts.
Geographical origin; Sensorial quality; Spatial variability
