Depending on the coffees variety, it takes 3 to 4 years for a newly planted coffee tree to bear fruit with the first useful harvest around 5 years after planting. First to blossom are the coffee trees’ flowers which turn into fruits commonly known as coffee cherries. The cherries ripen around 8-11 months after the flowers blossom and begin changing color from green to yellow to red and on to burgundy. When the coffee cherry is bright, deep red it is ripe and ready to be harvested.

In most growing origins there is one harvest per year; though there are exceptions where there are two harvests per year. When this occurs there is usually a large main harvest and then a smaller secondary harvest.

Due to the growth of most Arabica coffees in mountainous areas, the widespread use of mechanical harvesters isn’t possible and the ripe cherries are either hand-picked or stripped, both are labor-intensive, time consuming and difficult process. One of the most significant exceptions is Brazil, where most Arabica coffee is grown on flat landscapes and immense sized coffee fields that permit the use of mechanized processes.   Robusta coffees are mostly picked via mechanized processes due to their natural tendency of growth within lower elevations which are typically flat terrains.

Arabica coffee cherries picked via hand-picking must be regularly harvested or they will become over-ripe and spoil. The harvest window from initial ripening to spoilage is only 10-14 days.  A coffee tree is picked an average of 3 to 4 times per harvest to collect all ripe cherries from the plant.

A Coffee tree will yield an average of 4-8 lbs. of cherries depending on the species. Robusta tends to produce a lot more fruit than Arabica. These cherries produce only 1-2 lbs. of green coffee beans per tree during a harvest season.  A professional coffee picker can harvest upwards of 100-200 lbs. of coffee cherries a day.

Each day a picker’s harvest is weighed and each picker is paid either by the basketful and much less common by the weight of coffee harvested.

Coffee Harvest and Shipping Dates

See Coffee Harvest and Shipping Chart.