Em 1958 e 1959 foram estudados no Vale do Paraíba, região normalmente produtora de café de bebida rio ou riada, processos de colheita e preparo a fim de observar a influência dessas operações sôbre a qualidade da bebida. Dois processos de colheita foram comparados: o da derriça e o da colheita apenas dos frutos maduros ou cerejas. Estas foram sêcas com e sem prévio despolpamento, retirando-se a mucilagem pela fermentação natural ou com solução de NaOH a 0,5%, sendo, neste último caso, maceradas, ou não, em água, durante 12 horas. Em todos os casos a secagem foi feita em terreiro. Para comparação, incluiram-se na experiência quatro lotes de café das bebidas-padrão: mole, apenas mole, dura e riada. O café derriçado alcançou as piores médias, classificando-se em ambos os anos, entre os padrões de bebida dura e riada. As cerejas despolpadas não diferiram estatisticamente entre si e tampouco do padrão mole. As cerejas não despolpadas se mostraram equivalentes ao padrão mole, em 1958, mas foram inferiores a êle em 1959.
The influence of harvesting and processing the coffee fruits on the qualities of the beverage was studied on material obtained from the Paraiba Valley. This region is known to produce low quality coffee, commonly designated as having the Rio flavor. Two haver sting procedures were compared: (I) the usual stripping method and (2) the hand picking of ripe berries. The coffee fruits picked according to the second method were further thus treated: (a) dried as such; (b) pulped and then dried. The mucillage of the pulped coffee was removed by natural fermentation or by treatment in a 0.5% sodium hydroxide solution. After washing the pulped coffee seeds that underwent this last treatment were immediately put to dry in one case and macerated during 12 hours before being dried in the other. All samples in the experiment were sun dried. For statistical analysis, the samples obtained in the experiment were compared in the cup test with four standard samples corresponding to the soft, softish, hard, and slightly Rio flavor beverages. The poorest samples were represented by the stripped coffee. They gave a beverage that was classified between hard and slightly Rio. All the samples of pulped coffee were statistically alike and similar to the soft standard. The berries that were dried without pulping were comparable to the soft standard in 1958, but were inferior to it in 1959.
