How to Pick Coffee Beans

Harvest coffee beans at peak ripeness for the best taste.

Coffee has become an almost universal drink, yet few people know what it takes to harvest coffee. If you're thinking about growing your own coffee plant, you'll need to know how to pick the coffee beans once they are ripe. Otherwise, you may end up with a bitter brew.

Things You'll Need

• Coffee plant
• Gardening gloves
• Plastic bucket

Instructions

1. Examine your coffee plants in the middle of the growing season. By this point they should have small round, green fruits. These are called coffee cherries. When the cherries grow to the size of a large marble, they should start showing a red flush. Examine the coffee cherries each day after the red flush begins to show.

2. Wait for at least ¼ of your coffee cherries to turn entirely red. Put on your gardening gloves and set a plastic bucket on the ground near your feet. Gently lift one branch of your coffee plant. Turn the red cherries gently, making sure they're completely red with no green spots. Squeeze very gently; they should give a little but still be very firm.

3. Pluck the suitable cherries from the plant and drop them in your bucket. Leave the green cherries behind; they will ripen later in the season. Store your harvested red cherries in a cool, dark place until you are ready to process them.

4. Check the remaining green cherries each day. After the first harvest, you should see new red cherries every week or so. Harvest them as they ripen. Do not harvest cherries that have turned a very dark red and feel mushy. These cherries have gone to seed. Either let them drop or pluck them off.

References

• Coffee Research: Harvesting Coffee Beans
• Barista Guru: The Birth of the Bean
• I Need Coffee: The Coffee Mill