How coffee is picked: hand, strip or machine.

Reading the cherry

Most coffee cherries move from green through yellow and orange to a deep red when ripe, and the National Coffee Association describes them as turning deep red or purplish. A few varieties, such as Yellow Bourbon, ripen yellow instead. Because the change from green to yellow is subtler to the eye than green to red, judging ripeness takes more skill with those varieties.

Cherries on one branch ripen at different times, so ripeness decides how a farm picks.

Three harvesting methods

Selective picking: pickers go through the trees about every 8 to 10 days and take only the ripe cherries. It costs more and is used mainly for premium arabica.

Strip picking: all the cherries come off the branch at once, ripe or not, which mixes ripeness levels unless the fruit is sorted afterwards.

Machine harvesting: larger farms in some places, such as Brazil, use mechanized harvesters. Hand picking is the norm in most countries.

What happens next

After picking, the cherries are sorted and processed. How they are processed is the next big influence on flavour. We have not yet confirmed how Monte Romo is harvested.