processing a world class coffee

The mechanical coffee harvester is enormous.

The first two stages in processing coffee are the harvesting and grading of the coffee cherry.

Harvesting is an art characterised by growers judging the right moment to pick the cherries. Since cherries ripen at different rates, the goal is to pick when most of the cherries are perfectly ripe. Picking is a mechanised process involving a harvester.

Grading is done using a wet method where any black cherries float due to being lighter than the other cherries and can be skimmed off the top of the tank of water. The red and green cherry sink to the bottom of the tank where the red cherries absorb water that softens them allowing them to be pushed through a grating that only allows the red cherries to pass through and excludes the harder green cherries.

Pulped seeds from the red cherries are then washed and dried in large grain driers to a moisture content of around 11%. The dried seeds are then hulled to remove the last casing from the cherry and graded ready for roasting.