São apresentados resultados de ensaios relativos à influência do tempo decorrido entre a colheita e o despolpamento de café maduro, sobre a qualidade da bebida, na zona ecológica de Campinas. Os resultados acu- saram não haver influência do tempo de armazenamento até 46 1/2 horas após a colheita. Todos os tratamentos alcançaram valores correspondentes a bebida "mole'* ou "apenas mole".
Experiments were carried out in 1958 and 1959 to determine the influence of the time intervals between harvesting and the pulping process of cherry coffee beans on the beverage quality. The green coffee was the Mundo Novo variety which came from the São Quirino farm (massape soil) located in the rural zone of the city of Campinas. The treatments were represented by 13 lots of cherry coffee with different time intervals of pulping after harvesting: 0, 4, 5 1 / 2 , 8 1 / 2 , 14 1/2, 26 1/2 and 46 1/2 hours Coffee was harvested a t t h e beginning of the day, midday and the end of the day. Some lots of beans were exposed to the sun and some others were shaded. The cup tests were carried out in t h e Sensory Evaluation Laboratory of the Instituto Agronômico of Campinas, by trained panel with 8 tasters. The d a t a were based on 32 determinations (8 tasters x 4 replications) and showed no difference among treatments ; all of them were scored as soft and softish coffee. The autors arrived at the conclusion that the pulping process at Campinas conditions can be made u p to 46 1/2 hours after harvesting without causing any "off flavor" to the coffee beverage. The results obtained are true for the pulped cherry beans for the rural zone of Campinas. To any other locality with different climate and soil, the conclusions can't be extended without previous experimental works.