From Cherry to Green Bean: How Coffee Is Harvested and Processed

A coffee cherry takes three years to grow and nine months to ripen — and how it’s dried and shipped can matter as much as how it’s grown.

From Harvest to Green Bean

• Trees take 3 years to fruit; blossoms triggered by prolonged rain
• 9 months from flower to ripe cherry — and cherries don’t ripen uniformly
• Strip picking (all at once, cheaper) vs. selective picking (multiple passes, better quality)
• After harvest: wet mill removes fruit, dries beans to ~11-12% moisture
• Dried beans stored ‘in parchment’ (en reposo) for 30-60 days
• Dry milling: hulling removes parchment; beans graded by size, density, color
• Green coffee shipped in jute bags or GrainPro-lined containers

In this episode

0:00 Three years to first fruit, then the harvest
1:10 Wet process vs. dry process
3:13 Drying the bean to 11-12% moisture
5:08 Grain Pro bags and the diesel-smell problem

Watch the series: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLX4SK1C49ZWA
(This episode goes live in the playlist on its release date.)
Free guided tasting sheet: https://gillespie.coffee/pages/guided-tasting-sheet
Coffees: https://gillespie.coffee — viewers get 10% with FEARLESS10

Coffee by Gillespie · Fearlessly Roasted