Sensory profiles of coffee in the Dominican Republic are linked to the terroirs

Abstract

Dominican coffee cultivation is changing. The institutional and private chain participants want to improve the marketing of their coffee. They would like to access the ''specialty coffees'' market, including the ''coffee terroir'' market, to give producers the opportunity of better income from their coffee. In order to characterize Dominican coffees and to reveal the factors influencing their taste quality, an agronomic and environmental survey was conducted in the coffee production zones. During two harvests periods, some 676 samples were collected and sensory tests performed in the Dominican Republic. The first aim of the study was to characterize the coffees for the whole country. Through a hierarchical classification, a sensory typology was built up defining five distinct types of coffee, each of which has a specific profile. A sensory map was built with the geographical coordinates of the coffees. The second aim was to define terroirs through the study of the factors affecting the sensorial quality of coffee. The main environmental factors are the altitude and the correlated variables (temperature, sun radiance, rainfall, etc.), type of soil and coffee variety. The data set built up from the study will help Dominican coffee producers in adopting the right scale for the terroirs in terms of typicity and stability of coffees. © 2007 John Libbey Eurotext.