Coffee Production & Farming

How to Improve Your Coffee Quality in

Harvesting & Sorting
January 24, 2018
Home Coffee Production & Farming How to Improve Your Coffee Quality in Harvesting &
Sorting

For exceptional specialty coffee, sorting during harvesting and processing is of the utmost
importance. Even a few low-quality or defective beans can reduce the quality of an otherwise
excellent lot.

Ben Weiner, CEO of Gold Mountain Coffee Growers, invests heavily in post-harvest sorting and
agreed to talk me through his processes. These stages are implemented on his farm, Finca Idealista
in Nicaragua, and also followed by any partner farm of Gold Mountain (something that he tells me
benefits both the farm and its customers, as it ensures better cup scores and prices).

Let me quickly mention that his advice is most relevant for washed coffee. For natural and honey
processed coffees, some of the stages will have to be omitted – meaning workers must be even
more diligent when picking cherries. However, even with these alternative processing methods,
following as much of this guide as possible will help you to ensure that only the best beans make
it into a lot.

Lee este artículo en Español: Cómo Mejorar la Calidad de tu Café al Seleccionar la

Cosecha
Selectively picking coffee cherries: the first stage in sorting. Credit: Ben Weiner, Gold Mountain
Coffee Growers

Step 1: Picking
Cherry picking is a long and difficult task: Ben tells me that, on his farm, it starts at 6 am and
continues until 2 pm, at which point they switch to other quality control tasks.

Before picking begins, he recommends first inspecting the crop to ensure the cherries are ripe
enough. You can use a refractometer to measure their brix, or sugar content. He explains that
although there is no “perfect” brix/sugar content, this information provides a reference point.
“There is no magic number but rather a range of the right levels,” he emphasises.

You might also like: How to Improve Quality When Drying Washed Coffees
 Using a refractometer to measure brix, in addition to a ripeness bracelet, on Finca Idealista.
These cherries will need a few more days to ripen. Credit: Ben Weiner, Gold Mountain Coffee
Growers

A more affordable way to measure cherry ripeness is through colour. On Finca Idealista, they use
this alongside brix content. In fact, they’ve created “ripeness bracelets” that are the exact colour
of ripe red cherries.

A word of warning, though: Ben advises that it’s harder to determine ripeness through colour alone
when you’re harvesting yellow cherries. He explains that it generally takes experienced pickers to
tell when they’re both soft enough and the perfect deep, golden shade.

Ripeness bracelets used to determine if coffee cherries are ripe. Credit: Ben Weiner, Gold
Mountain Coffee Growers

When picking, there will also be cherries that are over-ripe or show signs of insect damage. It’s as
important to remove these as it is to avoid picking under-ripe coffee. By attaching a bag, which in
Nicaragua is called a salveque, to the basket, pickers can put any over-ripe cherries straight into
there. Ben recommends that, to ensure pickers are motivated to remove over-ripe or defective
cherries, the salveque is also weighed and pickers are paid for it at the same rate as the ripe cherries.
A salveque hangs next to the cherry basket, ready for defective or overripe cherries. Credit: Ben
Weiner, Gold Mountain Coffee Growers

Step 2: Sorting on a Tarp

Once the picking is done, Ben advises placing all cherries on a tarp and searching for any stray
unripe or green ones. He tells me that, on Finca Idealista, 40 people do this every single day. After
all, it only takes one to add an astringent taste to an otherwise delicious (and high-scoring) cup of
coffee.
 Workers sort coffee cherries on tarps, removing unripe, damaged, and defective ones. Credit:
Ben Weiner, Gold Mountain Coffee Growers

Step 3: Removing Floaters

Before fermentation begins, the cherries should be placed in tanks of water to check for defects.
Any that float to the top are either hollow or have unhealthy/defective beans and so can
immediately be removed. Ben recommends recycling the water to be more environmentally
friendly.

Now, the cherries are finally ready for depulping and fermenting (assuming you are wet processing
them).

Step 4: Washing Channels

After fermentation, you can use a washing channel to remove defective or low-quality beans. These
small channels should feature small wooden weirs or barriers (tablillas in Spanish). The green
beans are added to the channels along with running water, and often a worker will use a broom or
wooden implement to disturb the layers.
Dense, good-quality beans will sit at the bottom of the channel and be caught by the weirs; low-
quality, lightweight ones will float over the top, where they can be caught and either discarded or
sold to the local/commodity-grade market. These are often called segundas in Latin American
countries.

Discover 3 More Ways to Avoid Water Pollution in Coffee Processing!

A washing channel separates dense, high-quality beans from lightweight, low-quality ones.
Credit: Ben Weiner, Gold Mountain Coffee Growers

Step 5: Sorting on The Drying Beds

Now that the coffee has been processed and sorted, it’s ready for drying – but there are still quality
control steps to be done. Ben recommends that, while coffee dries on the beds (or patios), workers
conduct visual inspections. They should look for and remove beans that are broken, chipped, or
machine-damaged; have signs insect damage; or are discoloured or too green when wet.

Since all coffee should be regularly moved while drying, these visual inspections can take place at
the same time. Similarly, if the coffee is relocated – after the beans have dried a little, Ben moves
his lower down the mountain where the climate is warmer – the visual inspection can continue in
the new location.

You might also like How to Improve Quality When Drying Washed Coffees!
 A worker visually inspects drying coffee, removing any beans do not meet quality standards.
Credit: Ben Weiner, Gold Mountain Coffee Growers

Step 6: Cupping
When the coffee reaches the ideal moisture content, Ben recommends cupping it to make sure
there are no defects or imperfections. If you notice any, the coffee can then be sorted again.

Step 7: Cleaning Machine

There are a wide variety of machines that, at the final stages of coffee production and processing,
can sort through the beans. Ben explains that he uses a machine to remove any extraneous
materials: leaves, branches, pebbles, and so on.

Step 8: Density Sorter

Finally, after the coffee has rested for two months, it’s time for the last stages. A density sorter or
gravity separator can be used to separate high-density and low-density beans. If you have beans of
multiple sizes, however, Ben recommends sorting them by size before putting them through the
density sorter; this can also be done by machine.

Step 9: Colour Sorting & Conveyor Belts

The final step is to remove any discoloured beans. Ben explains that this can be done via a machine;
however, he argues that it’s even more effective to hire 60–80 workers who will remove the defects
on a conveyor belt.

Using this many workers is expensive and time-consuming, but Ben emphasises the value of
having clean, high-quality beans without any defects to spoil the lot. The impact of all these steps
will be made visible in the cup score.
Sorting coffee on the conveyor belt. Credit: Ben Weiner, Gold Mountain Coffee Growers
In theory, better cup scores should result in better prices paid by roasters, which in turn can pay
the high labour costs of all these workers sorting through the beans – adding up to a greater
investment in the local community. High-quality coffee can be also financially and socially
sustainable coffee.

And Ben tells me that his aim is perfection.

There is no step so small that it can be overlooked when you’re producing and processing specialty
coffee. While these quality control steps represent an investment of time, labour, and money, they
can also help ensure the best-possible cup of coffee, every single time.
Coffee Science: How Can We Identify &
Improve Cherry Ripeness?
, February 24, 2016
Home Coffee Production & Farming Coffee Science: How Can We Identify & Improve Cherry
Ripeness?

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Working in the coffee industry is exciting; working in the specialty coffee industry is thrilling.
Part of that difference is the constant striving for excellence and innovation that defines the Third
Wave. As a specialty coffee producer in El Salvador, I have the opportunity to experiment with an
almost infinite number of variables in my search for the perfect cup.

While completing my courses for a Master’s Degree in Coffee Economics and Science in Italy, I
confirmed what I had suspected for some time: achieving a great cup of coffee requires attention
to detail in every single step of the process – and improving cup quality requires improving each
of these steps.

SEE ALSO: Controlled Fermentation: A Critical Step in Flavour Development?

Traveling back to El Salvador, I realized we already had the altitude, the varieties (we plant
Bourbon, Pacas, Pacamara, and a few more), sound farming and harvesting practices, and control
over the post-harvest process. As it was, we were producing great coffees that were doing well.
But, as a specialty coffee producer, I had to ask: how could they be better?

According to K.C. O’Keefe’s Quality Formula, published in 2007, of all the decisions a coffee
farmer makes, the ripeness of the harvested cherries accounts for 35% of coffee quality. It is
by far the most important variable. So, I decided to further understand this variable and see if I
could find different ways to measure it. After all, if you measure something, you can improve it.
 Ripe cherries at Finca El Retiro, Café Pacas, El Salvador. Credit: Cafe Pacas

The Experiment: How Can You Identify & Improve

Ripeness?
If I was going to measure ripeness, I had to find a way to define it. I reached a breakthrough when
reading E. Cossio’s 2010 dissertation, in which Cossio stated that coffee ripeness can be identified
by:

1. Color change
 2. Pulp softening (solubilization)
3. Maximum sugar and dry matter contents
4. Aromatic compound presence – (E. Cossio, 2010)

So, this is what happens to coffee when it ripens – but I didn’t just want to identify the signs of
ripeness but to discover how to improve the final product. Do any of these variables have a
significant relationship with the final cup quality? What are the most important ones?

At Café Pacas, we spent two harvesting seasons answering these questions. We analyzed three of
Cossio’s variables for over 1,000 day-lots of coffee grown between 1,200 and 1750 m.a.s.l. Read
on to discover our findings.

Red Bourbon cherry sorting at Finca La Providencia, Café Pacas, El Salvador. Credit: Cafe
Pacas

1. Color Change
The most common way to judge ripeness is through the color of the cherries. When the majority
of them reach the desired color, you know it’s time to start harvesting.
 Determining the optimal ripeness for harvesting Red Bourbon by color. Credit: Cafe Pacas

We compared the color of the 1,000-day lots to their cupping score and found a strong correlation.
In fact, we found it to be the most significant out of the three variables, explaining 35% of the
variability in the cupping scores. (Notice how it matches O´Keefe´s Quality Formula!)
The relationship between cupping scores and ripeness level based on color. Credit: Cafe Pacas

Basing your decision to begin harvesting cherries on their color has many benefits. It’s practical,
requires little or no equipment, and is relatively easy to train pickers in.

However, it also has some limitations. It can be difficult to measure color with precision, and the
optimal color of ripe cherries can vary significantly between varieties. An Orange Bourbon, for
example, will have a different color to a Red Bourbon.

As of such, finding complementary variables to measure can help producers ensure they’re picking
cherries at the perfect degree of ripeness.
Judging ripeness through color is more challenging with Orange Bourbons. Credit: Cafe Pacas

2. Pulp Softening
We decided that the best way to measure pulp softening was by determining how much mucilage
was present. By correlating the amount of mucilage in each sample (representing a day-lot) of
coffee to a cupping score, we would discover if we could define ripeness in terms of pulp softening.

The first challenge that we faced was working out how to extract the mucilage in a consistent way
between samples. But one of the reasons I love to work is specialty coffee is that it gives me the
chance to invent new things and, fortunately, my team is very creative. So we invented a press that
we called Chupamiel or Honeysucker. It gave us a consistent way of treating different samples.
 Chupamiel, a.k.a. Honeysucker, by Café Pacas. CreditPhoto: Cafe Pacas

With each of the day-lot samples, we extracted the mucilage and then recorded its weight. This
allowed us to correlate the two variables – and to conclude that the amount of mucilage in the
sample accounted for 20% of the variability in cupping score.

The relationship between cupping score and weight of mucilage extracted. Credit: Cafe Pacas

Even though the correlation was not as high as with the cherry color, having over 1,000 samples
allowed us to conclude that coffee with more mucilage will tend to score better at the cupping
table. This also confirms our traditional practice of evaluating ripeness at the farm level by
counting the number of drops of mucilage in a coffee cherry.

3. Maximum Sugar and Dry Matter Contents

Having determined that the color of the cherries and the weight of the mucilage affect the coffee’s
quality, it was time to move on to Cossio’s third item: the contents of the mucilage.
Coffee cherries can ripen at different times even though they are on the same branch. But do they
all have the same sugar content? Credit: Finca Santa Elena, Café Pacas, El Salvador

According to Cossio, coffee is fully ripe when the sugars and dry materials are maximized in the
mucilage. So to understand the relationship of sugars and dry matter contents with coffee quality,
we need to measure something called brix in each of the mucilage samples. Brix is the degree of
sugar content in an aqueous solution.
 The relationship between cupping score and weight of mucilage extracted. Credit: Cafe Pacas

Although our results weren’t conclusive, the relationship between sugar content and cupping score
didn’t seem to be as strong as the other indicators so far.

4. Aromatic Compound Presence

Although we’d managed to scientifically measure the level of mucilage in cherries with a little bit
of creativity, analyzing the aromatic compounds of a coffee cherry… Well, that was more difficult.
To be honest, I’ve never tried it and I don’t know a practical way of accomplishing it.

I have noticed cherries from different varieties have different aromatic compounds, different tastes,
and aromas, which I imagine affect the final cup quality.

Who knows? Maybe in the future we will develop a coffee cherry tasting protocol! But for now,
the final item on Cossio’s list had to remain untested.
 Aromatic compound presence: the mystery sign of coffee ripeness.

The results of our analyses were intended to show trends that would guide us in determining the
optimum level of ripeness of the coffee we were harvesting. The final objective of this was, as
always with specialty coffee, to improve the quality of the cup.

What we could conclude was that making sure we harvest our coffee with the right color (35%
correlation), and with the highest amount of mucilage (20% correlation), may maximize cupping
score. And while these were the traditional signs, it’s crucial to know that they’re backed up by
science.

We´d love to learn from you: How do YOU harvest your coffee with the right color? How do YOU
promote the development of more mucilage? And how do YOU decide when your coffee is ready
to be harvested? Let us know!

Article written by J. A. Pacas of Café Pacas, El Salvador and edited by T. Newton.

Perfect Daily Grind.