Thursday, November 22, 2012

The Art of Hand-Picking Coffee Cherries

Each cherry must be picked at exactly the right time and handled with extreme care to deliver the highest quality and full-flavored coffee. The pickers must have a great deal of expertise because the difference between a ripe cherry and an over-ripe one can mean as little as two or three days. Over ripe cherries are purplish in color, and if left on the tree too long, will begin to ferment. Once fermented, they are known as "stinkers". A coffee that has been picked before it has fully ripened is called "quaker".

It takes approximately 2,000 handpicked cherries to create one pound of coffee depending on the type, size and density of the bean.


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