PRODUÇÃO DE AGUARDENTE DE UMBU (Spondias tuberosa Arruda) EM ALAMBIQUE DE COBRE

Abstract

The Caatinga occupies 70% of the Brazilian northeast, semi-arid climate and is characterized by a woody vegetation, in general thorny. Umbu is the fruit of the umbu tree, one of the most important fruit trees in the Caatinga. Also known as imbu, ambu and ombu, the fruit of the umbu tree has a sweet citrus flavor, with a rounded shape, smooth or slightly hairy skin, and seed pit in the middle of the fruit surrounded by juicy pulp. The umbu tree is very resistant to long periods of drought. During the dry season, regionally known as summer, it loses its leaves, which helps to prevent the plant from losing water through respiration and transpiration. The present work aims to produce a brandy from the fruit of the umbu tree (Spondias tuberosa Arruda), a tree native to the Brazilian semi-arid region. The must was formed by umbu juice, diluted with distilled water at 6 °Brix. Fermentation was conducted for 3 days, distillation was conducted in a copper still, the distillation fractions were 28 °GL in the heart fraction and 11 °GL in the tail fraction. The proposal to obtain an umbu brandy using a copper still was achieved. We used the total acidity as a parameter to evaluate the umbu brandy, we obtained results of the total acidity for the umbu brandy, obtained by copper still, presented values (5.86 in the heart fraction), well below the limits established by the legislation.