A Glimpse Into The Coffee Harvesting Process

We are having so much fun with our small coffee tree harvest right now. Each day Dave eyes the tree for new ripe coffee cherries and then picks just the ripest ones to begin the process.  

After picking the ripest coffee cherries then we float them in a sink of water twice each time skimming off the floaters. After floating the coffee cherries we remove the husks of the coffee cherry exposing the pair of green beans inside their parchments. At this point typically the beans are washed a third time then dried to an 11% moisture content while aging in their parchments for about 2 months. Then the parchments are removed, the beans are sacked and ready to be roasted.  

Sometimes we choose a different preparation method for the green beans called a Miel preparation. Miel means honey in Spanish. When we pop open the coffee cherry and remove the husk the beans are encased in a sweet fruity pulp, typically this pulp is removed before drying but if you leave it on it decreases the acidity of the coffee and gives it a hint of sweetness reminiscent of honey and brings out the caramel and spicy undertones so we decided to do some of our harvest this way as well.  We look forward to sharing more photos with you as we enjoy this harvest together.

The picture at the top shows the coffee beans using the Miel preparation, can you see the sticky sweetness that covers the beans and parchment?

This photo shows traditionally prepared beans which have been triple washed.

Here is a link to the National Coffee Association where they discuss coffee bean harvesting in more detail.