Coffee Tour: Harvest Time!
The journey from tree to cup can certainly be time consuming. Whilst most natural products tend to be at their finest more or less immediately, some of the more complex food and drink products require patience – think great wines or cheeses.
The logistical nature of transporting raw coffee beans, combined with a necessary rest period, means that new crop coffees are not available straight from the harvest.
In fact, roasting and drinking recently picked coffee is not a pleasant experience – they tend to have a very wild, green taste to them, although an experienced taster can judge whether the coffee will subsequently develop greatness or not.
After drying, the coffee must be rested – usually still in the husk (parchment coffee) and preferably in wooden silos with controlled humidity. This rest period may take up to two months at origin. A batch of speciality coffee will only be shipped once it has reached an optimum degree of maturity, so that upon arrival in the consumer country (after transport and time at sea) it will be ready for sampling, and then hopefully ready for trial roasting and beyond…
The best coffees must not only have been picked at the finest point of the harvest but must also have settled sufficiently before being roasted, so that the prized aromas and tastes can be experienced at their very peak.
So, with that in mind, let’s take a quick look around the coffee growing world.
October 2007
Beginning of the New Harvest Season…
Guatemala, Costa Rica, Colombia, Kenya, Ethiopia
Harvesting of the new crop season coffees is beginning in Central America, although it is mainly in the lower altitude regions. Higher altitude Central’s will be picked at the end of the year, as the coffee cherries ripen slower.
Expect to see new crop coffees around spring 2008.
In Colombia, harvesting is undertaken all year round which is an exception to the rule. They are just beginning to harvest the main crop of the year, which will peak in December – January. The “Mitaca” fly-crop from southern Departments such as Cauca, has already been harvested.
Coming to the End of the New Season’s Harvest…
New crop coffees available towards the end of 2007, and early 2008
Brasil
Bolivia
Rwanda
Papua New Guinea
Harvest Season in Full Swing…
Indonesia
