Compilation

The cycles of flowering/maturation are not in the successive tropical zones, so and as it happens in climates temperings. He is not surprising, for that reason, to see coexist in the coffee plants flowers and berries. The collection is carried out as soon as finishes the station of rains. The harvesting systems are three mainly:

a) Of manual way we found the following points;

Picking (equivalent to our “milking”). It consists of taking with the hand, one to one, the most mature berries (those of intense red color) of the coffee plantation.. They are chipped and, after a pair of days of maceration, they are washed throwing 125 liters of water by kg. of coffee to eliminate the mucilaginosa substance that they have. Soon they happen to dry itself to the sun to strip those of the ““descascarado” parchment” (fine cellulose layer that still covers them) by means of, last operation before coming to the toasting. It is a slow method, of expensive quality and.

Stripping. The branch is taken of the coffee plant with all the berries, independently of its state of maturity. They are put to dry to the sun several days before happening to the chipped one. The classification by quality, is carried out by means of electronic devices (500 grains per second), that eliminate green grains, fermented and those of bad scent (“to stinker”). This system of collection is, evidently, of less economic quality and, and it is used there where the manual labor is more expensive. From the “mixtures” of crude are made there, by means of “tastings” that the “professional degustadores” make of each lot (office wonderfully paid well, for obvious reasons).

 

b) With machines by means of the collection system “stripping”

 

c) By sweeping which consists of by hand sweeping grains fallen to the ground or with machines.

DATES OF HARVESTING
Recolta of the cherries is of 9 to 11 months after the flowering for the robust coffee, and the arábica of 6 to 8 months after the flowering.
The date of recolta is different depending the geographic situation on the country (to the north or the south of the equator)
The dates of recolta are carried out in:
- of May to September in Brazil
- of November to April in the Ivory Coast
- of October to March in Central America
- All the year in Colombia