How to Harvest Coffee Beans

Last Updated: November 6, 2022 References

You may not be planning to move to a remote high-altitude location and start a coffee plantation, but you can start a small crop at your homestead. If you do so, you will need to know how to harvest coffee beans. It helps to know the coffee bean is inside the coffee cherry which grows on the coffee tree. Harvest coffee once a year when most of the cherries are ripe. Commercial growers use one of several methods of harvesting coffee. Home growers will not have the crop size nor the need for the more mechanical harvesting methods, but the more hands-on methods can certainly be executed by home growers.

Method 1

Method 1 of 4:

Selective Harvesting

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Pick the ripe coffee cherries. Let the unripe cherries remain on the tree to ripen and be harvested at a later date. Ripeness is determined by appearance and touch. Gently squeeze the fruit. If ripe, it will be slightly soft and give a little under the pressure. Ripe coffee cherries will also be bright red and glossy. Place cherries in a basket.^{[1]
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Method 2

Method 2 of 4:

Harvest by Stripping

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Strip all the cherries off the coffee tree. One sweep of a branch removes the ripe as well as the unripe berries. Commercial growers use machines to remove all the berries. This method is used when the majority of the berries are ripe. Though there is a significant amount of waste when coffee is harvested by stripping, the cost is worth it for commercial growers who find this method more cost effective than the time and financial investment involved in selective harvesting. You can strip harvest at home by hand by grabbing a branch and sliding your hand forward to knock all the cherries off the tree and onto the ground.^{[2]
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2
Rake the coffee cherries. Use a rake to gather the cherries that have been knocked to the ground. You can place a sheet or netting under the tree to collect the cherries as they fall. This will make the task of picking them up from the ground easier.
3
Sort the coffee cherries. Separate the ripe from the unripe cherries. Remove any leaves and branch pieces that may have gotten mixed in. The refuse can be thrown out or placed in your compost pile.^{[3]
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Method 3

Method 3 of 4:

Mechanical Harvesting

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Remove coffee cherries with a machine. Large commercial growers use big harvesting machines to remove the coffee cherries from the trees. Some machines vibrate the trunk, shaking the berries to the ground. Other machines have brushes attached that sweep the berries off the tree.^{[4]
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Method 4

Method 4 of 4:

What Happens Next

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Pulp the berries. Squeeze the cherries to separate the seed or the coffee bean from the fruit.^{[5]
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2
Soak the beans. After you have separated the beans from the fruit, some meat will remain on the beans. Soak them in a bowl or bucket of water for one to two days to break down the fruit and separate it from the bean. The fruit will float to the top and can be discarded, while the beans sink to the bottom of the bowl.
3
Dry the beans. Drying the beans is a lengthy process, taking between 10 to 30 days, depending on the weather. It is worth the wait, however. Lay the bean on a wire mesh or concrete somewhere outdoors in the shade. Several times each day, stir and rotate the beans to make sure they dry evenly. You will know the beans are dry when their outer skin flakes off easily.^{[6]
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Community Q&A

Question

Are the beans then ready to be ground and made into a good pot of coffee?

Community Answer

They still need to be roasted. Also, it's highly unlikely you'll be able to depulp coffees by hand.
Question

What is the name for the small machines that grind coffee beans?

Community Answer

Those are just referred to as coffee bean grinders, or simply coffee grinders.
Question

What do I do with the unripe coffee beans?

Community Answer

Plant them! Put your unrepentant beans into soil and see if you can grow them. It will take a few years for them to produce but it is a fun project. Also, they can be used to compost back into your trees.