Coffee is a complex drink in terms of its sensory characteristics. The main types of coffee are Coffea Arabica and Coffea robusta. C. arabica is accepted as coffee of better quality. The aroma of coffee is affected by all the processing of coffee fruit and coffee beans. Most aromatic compounds in coffee are formed during roasting, and the groups of aromatically important compounds in coffee are furans, furanons, phenolic compounds, sulphur-containing compounds, pyrazines and thiols. Important nonvolatile compounds in coffee are caffeine, trigonellin and chlorogenic acid. Coffee can be prepared with or without filtration. The quality of the coffee is determined by chemical and sensory analysis. Descriptive sensory analysis is a complex method for analysing taste, odour, aroma and other sensory properties of coffee. The descriptive sensory analysis is carried out only by trained assessors. Coffee is a very demanding food for sensory analysis as it has a complex aroma, contains more than 1000 aromatic compounds and has a distinctly bitter taste. In the method of descriptive sensory analysis of coffee, we use descriptors such as bitter, sweet, sour, roasted, nutty, spicy, green, fermented, acrid, rubber, chocolate, fruity, floral and others. Coffee-specific descriptors incite certain emotions in consumers, which influences the sensory acceptability of coffee. An important tool for descriptive sensory analysis of coffee is the sensory lexicon, which contains coffee descriptors, definitions of descriptors and reference compounds for each descriptor. The sensory lexicon for coffee is useful as a communication tool, in training sensory assessors and in performing descriptive sensory analysis. The visual representation of the sensory lexicon is the sensory wheel. The sensory coffee wheel includes nine main groups divided into subgroups of descriptors with typical representatives. It is intended for experts in the field of sensory analysis of coffee, as well as for consumers to familiarize with the sensory properties of coffee.
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