Harvesting
The cherries of the coffee plant take about nine months to fully ripen. When the time comes to harvest them, several methods can be used.
Mechanical harvesters straddle the tree row [the tree goes inside them]; they have heavy counterweights on top of two columns, which are driven at variable speeds. As these weights spin they cause the columns to rotate. Attached to the columns are hundreds of picking rods, which vibrate and oscillate as the weights on top rotate.
The vibration of these rods through the trees is what picks the coffee off the tree. Below the columns are “fish plates” which are angled segments of polycarbonate sheet attached to springs. These fish plates fill the gaps between the tree trunks, and because of their angle the coffee cherries are rolled to the internal horizontal conveyers, which lead to other conveyers and finally to the holding bin.
All of the coffee cherries on Reggie’s Roast Farms are meticulously picked by hand ensuring each cherry is ready for your cup. Experts agree that the best approach is selective picking, which is where the picker hand-selects the ripest and best cherries for harvesting. Since coffee
crops don’t mature all at once, it’s sometimes necessary to pick each tree several times to remove the ripe cherries.
A ripe coffee bean – plump and red – signals harvest. Each year in Jamaica, where hand picking is the norm, one by one, the coffee beans come off the tree. Red coffee cherries must be picked without disturbing the unripe coffee beans on the coffee branch. This is a critical step in quality coffee production. Picking coffee in its most ripened stage is a challenge, as well an art. Coffee is no different from any other fruit, in that it has its peak, ripened stage.
Coffee is best picked when fully red. The immature beans – green, yellow, orange and those less than half red – are left on the tree for the next picking round. Immature coffee beans promote below average taste. It is critical and an “art” to pick the coffee that’s half-red or better, and to get back to the other ripening beans before they turn dark purple to brown in color. Those beans are over ripe and their sugars are already breaking down and negatively affect taste. But unlike most other fruit, it has little ripening leeway after it’s picked. The deterioration begins immediately after the cherry’s off the tree. The sugars begin to be converted to starches right away. This naturally occurring process leads to rot, and the cherry should not sit for more than 10 hours.
PROCESSING COFFEE
Processing of coffee is the method converting the raw fruit of the coffee plant into the coffee. The cherry has the fruit or pulp removed leaving the seed or bean which is then dried. While all green coffee is processed, the method that is used varies and can have a significant effect on the flavor of roasted and brewed coffee.
After the raw coffee fruit (cherry) gets collected the processing of coffee converts it to the commodity green coffee. The cherry has the fruit or pulp removed leaving the seed or bean which is then dried. The coffee processing method used varies and can have a significant effect on the flavor of roasted and brewed coffee.
Dry process
Dry process, also known as unwashed or natural coffee, is the oldest method of processing coffee, and is for the most part limited to regions where water or infrastructure for machinery is scarce. The entire cherry after harvest is first cleaned and then placed in the sun to dry on tables or in thin layers on patios. It takes between ten days and two weeks for the cherries to completely dry. The cherries need to be raked regularly to prevent mildew while they dry.
Wet process – USED ON REGGIE’S ROAST FARMS
Often called “washed” This process requires large amounts of water and skill. The coffee cherries are sorted by immersion in water. Bad or unripe fruit will float and the good ripe fruit will sink. The skin of the cherry and some of the pulp is removed by pressing the fruit by machine in water through a screen. The bean will still have a significant amount of the pulp clinging to it that needs to be removed. This is done either by the classic ferment-and-wash method or a newer procedure variously called machine-assisted wet processing, aquapulping or mechanical demucilaging.