Coffee Cherries Are Sweet But They Make Better Coffee Than Jam!

The coffee cherries are a beautiful bright red when they have matured and are ready to be harvested. The cherries grow and mature all year round, but in Ecuador, the harvest is traditionally just once a year.

Some countries actually have a small, second harvest called a "fly crop!" It is never as great or as big as the primary harvest. Depending on the rains and moisture in a given region, a second crop is always possible.

In some countries, where rainfall is constant all year round, it is normal to have a second short harvest, and coffee cherries seem to never end.

Some coffee farmers harvest the cherries all at once, taking the green and yellow cherries all at the same time. The coffee produced from this type of harvest is of the common variety that you would traditionally find in a grocery store, already ground in a can or bag.

What is rather disturbing about this practice is instead of being a little patient by allowing the cherries to mature before harvesting, the farmers sacrifice at least 40% of the value of their coffee. While it seems to be a quick way to make money with little effort, in the end more is sacrificed than is gained.

This is common for most farmers and accounts for the greatest amount of coffee harvested. Because of this mixture of ripe and unripened cherries, the overall quality of the coffee beans that will be processed have more defects so the yield is less as well as the potential quality of the coffee made from these beans. Coffee "blends" would be common for this type of coffee, where only a small amount of "premium" coffee is used, and the rest is made up of the more common variety.

This type of coffee is what has been offered in the U.S. for decades, and you never knew there was something better until Coffee Houses began to pop up all over the place specializing in the un-blended, Arabica coffees, long considered gourmet of specialty coffee.

In the late 1900's, the U.S. nearly became a "tea drinking" country as the coffee consumption declined due to such poor quality coffee being offered by major roasters. Today, major food chains, as well as roasters and wholesale food suppliers have been forced by consumer demand to improve their coffee offerings with great success. It is now possible to go to get a breakfast sandwich, a donut, or gas at the local convenience store, and get a good cup of coffee too!