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Drying is a key stage for the preservation of coffee quality during storage and threshing. Thus, inappropriate practices can have negative impacts on the appearance of the bean and generate sensory defects. The present study evaluated the effect of the interruption of mechanical drying under a 2x4+1 factorial design, with two initial drying times (6 and 12 hours), four interruption times (12, 24, 36 and 48 hours) and a control with mechanical drying without interruption. Intermediate moisture content of parchment coffee was determined for interrupted treatments. On average, when a drying time of 12 hours was used, the moisture content was reduced to 42.29%, with differences of 4.97% and 9.9% with the 6-hour drying treatments and the initial humidity of the washed coffee, respectively. For the healthy green bean variable, an average value of 76.76% was obtained and there were no differences between the treatments. As for the proportion of samples with sensory defect, regardless of the initial drying time, after 36 hours of interruption, the proportion of sensory defects increased. The analysis of variance showed an effect on the sensory quality variables in favor of the non-defect control and had an average score of 81.15. The predominant defect was musty and, according to Dunnett's test, the treatments of shorter initial drying time and longer interruption are different from the control.