There are several seed treatments in coffee berries.

There are several seed treatments in coffee berries.

The index finger and thumb of the collector are the best tools for collecting ripe berries. Scraping the fruit off a whole branch by hand or using an automated harvester can't tell ripe berries from green berries.

The ripe coffee berries look like cherries and are bright red with sweet flesh and contain a pair of seeds, namely coffee beans (Coffee Beans). Coffee varieties can be divided into small-grain, medium-grain and large-grain species, the former contains low caffeine content and strong flavor, while the latter two have high caffeine content but poor flavor. Coffee sold in the world is generally made of small and medium seeds in different proportions, usually 70% of medium seeds, mainly caffeine, and 30% of small seeds, mainly for their aroma. Each coffee variety generally has a few to a dozen variants. Coffee is more resistant to shade and cold, but not resistant to light, drought and disease. Coffee contains nine kinds of nutrients, such as caffeine, protein, crude fat, crude fiber and sucrose. As a beverage, coffee is not only mellow and delicious, slightly bitter and sweet, but also can excite nerves and dispel fatigue. In medicine, caffeine can be used as an anesthetic, stimulant, diuretic and cardiotonic, as well as to help digestion and promote metabolism. The pulp of coffee is rich in sugar and can be used to make sugar and alcohol. Coffee flowers contain essential oils, which can extract high-grade spices.

When the coffee berries are ripe, they are usually harvested by manual picking. In some places, only the fully ripe berries are picked, while others are all picked from a single branch. The former is called "handpicked" and the latter is called "strip-picking". Because the ripening time of coffee berries is not consistent, so the harvest is likely to be divided into several times, the duration will be very long, so harvesting is also the largest part of manpower investment.

The harvested coffee berries need further treatment, usually in two ways.

One is water washing, which is popular in Central America and parts of Africa; freshly harvested coffee berries separate the peel from the beans manually or mechanically, and then soak in water for 2 to 3 days. In this way, the pulp and sticky matter attached to the coffee beans will be removed. Then comes the cleaning and drying process, which can be done in the natural sun or by machine. Coffee trees are usually planted in rows a few inches apart. Some coffee farmers grow coffee under other high cash crops, or on the other side of the mountain, because coffee requires a specific growing environment. Arabica coffee trees can only grow at 15-24 ℃, while Robusta coffee trees can grow at 30 ℃. The average annual rainfall is 150-300mm. In the fruit growth stage, a large amount of rainfall is conducive to growth, but in the fruit ripening stage, a small amount of rainfall is better. Because the climate of the northern and southern hemispheres is different, the harvest time of coffee beans is also different. In some places, coffee beans are harvested all the year round.