From the cherry of the coffee tree to your bowl or your 5cl cup, a matter of taste… by taking a close interest in each step, I realized that there was material to write a book each time. So here it is, failing to write a book, I offer you an article step by step! Let's start with the coffee harvest.
First, what season for picking cherries, the fruit of the coffee tree ?
- Around the equator it is possible to harvest cherries all year round!
- North of the equator, it is between July and December.
- South of the equator, between April and August.
On the same shrub, the fruits will ripen at different speeds, so it will be necessary to pass several times during the same harvest, which will take up to 12 weeks. Harvesting requires a very large workforce! In some countries, the school holidays are placed at the same time as the harvest… I let you guess why.
On the same branch, we will find ripe cherries, green cherries, overripe cherries, leaves, flowers... The choice of picking method is therefore fundamental to making good coffee. How do you make good coffee? With the right cherries...
Harvesting cherries: Picking
Picking or “selective picking” consists of picking the cherries by hand. Hard work as well as a guarantee of quality! You can sometimes find this method under the minimalist name of "picking".
Several passages on a single tree every 3 to 4 days for 6 to 8 passages, the pickers take care to choose only ripe cherries. The cherries are then the subject of a second sorting by hand so as not to miss anything!
The figures that I have given you are only indicative, we find these data here and there but to my knowledge everyone goes there from the specificities of their region, their soil, their coffee... for the Blue Mountain of Jamaica, labeled as the best coffee in the world, the pickers pass as often as necessary in the year (… is located between the Equator and the Tropic of Cancer).
Picking sells itself as a better quality coffee in cup but also more ecologically and socially responsible.
We can read several times on certain sites that Arabicas are generally harvested by picking, given the size of the market and the stakes, I neither confirm nor deny this information… 🙂
Another method of harvesting: Stripping
Another method for harvesting coffee is stripping or “destemming”. Method that does not take into account the maturity of the cherries and increases productivity since it suffices to pull all the cherries on a bunch, without embellishment. The mixture obtained is already a Blend in itself, ripe, overripe, green cherries... the use of stripping should probably not be judged hastily insofar as the market is, once again, gigantic and the 'we don't know all the problems of a coffee producer!
We wait to have a majority of ripe cherries, we grab the twig and we tear everything, including the flowers!
- Green cherries give grains identical to ripe cherries but will remain lighter in roasting and without aromas.
- Black (overripe) cherries have a nickname, “stinkers” and produce an unpleasant taste and smell.
Other methods for harvesting coffee :
There is a kind of comb with soft teeth, spaced apart from each other. This allows you to pass through a branch and bring down the ripest cherries, leaving the green cherries and leaves. Yes, another disadvantage of stripping, although very common, is obviously to damage the shrub! This tool therefore makes it possible to preserve the plant more than stripping by hand.
There are also larger machines that pass through the plantations and act by vibrations. Similarly, you won't get great coffee and a consistent crop with this method, but it does meet demand.
There are several methods for harvesting coffee and not just two as you can often read on the internet. 🙂 And why two? We often simply oppose picking on one side and stripping on the other.
- Stripping can be manual or mechanical and can use various tools and machines!
And so ?
…so making sure you have hand-picked coffee is the first step to an exceptional cup!
If you want to learn more and get an overview of the entire coffee-making process, it's here! Indeed, harvesting is only one link in a long production chain and each of these stages constitutes a specialization in its own right.