The world's three major coffee bean picking methods revealed

The world's three major coffee bean picking methods revealed

Coffee is one of the most popular drinks in the world, and coffee beans are the key to making delicious coffee. Different regions and countries use different methods to harvest coffee beans, which directly affect the quality and taste of the beans. In this article, we will reveal the three main ways of picking coffee beans in the world.

1. Hand picking

Hand picking is the most traditional and common method. It is usually used in high-altitude areas such as Colombia and Brazil. Hand picking requires experienced farmers to operate and select fruits of appropriate maturity for harvesting at the right time.

Hand picking has many advantages. First, it ensures that only fruits of the right maturity are harvested, thus improving the overall quality. Second, manual operation can avoid damaging the fruit or the tree, and reduce the impact of impurities and foreign matter on yield and quality.

However, there are also some disadvantages of manual picking. First, it requires a lot of manpower and time costs, so labor-intensive manual picking will increase production costs. Second, it may be difficult to implement in large-scale production because a large number of workers need to be hired.

2. Mechanized harvesting

Mechanized harvesting is a relatively new method used mainly in flat areas and on large coffee plantations. It uses specially designed machines to harvest the coffee cherries.

Compared with manual picking, mechanized picking is more efficient and faster. It can complete a large amount of harvesting work in a short time and reduce labor costs. In addition, under proper settings, it can ensure that the fruits are collected intact and avoid damaging the trees.

However, there are also some problems with mechanized picking. First, during the operation, fruits that are not fully ripe or over-ripe may be mixed together, which affects the quality and taste of the beans. Second, improper operation may damage the trees or contaminate the beans.

3. Semi-automatic picking

Semi-automatic picking is a combination of manual picking and mechanized picking. It is usually used in some medium-sized coffee plantations, such as Mexico, Guatemala and other places.

In semi-automatic harvesting, farmers use specially designed tools to assist with harvesting. These tools help them collect the ripe fruits more quickly and reduce labor costs.

Compared with mechanized picking, semi-automatic picking pays more attention to fruit quality and taste. Farmers can choose the best time to harvest based on experience and avoid the problem of mixing unripe or over-ripe fruits.

Summarize

Different regions and countries choose different coffee bean picking methods according to their environmental conditions, production scale and economic factors. Manual picking is a traditional and popular method, which ensures the quality of beans but requires a lot of manpower; mechanized picking improves efficiency but may affect the quality of beans; and semi-automatic method is a compromise between the two, focusing on fruit quality and taste.

No matter which method is used, picking coffee beans is a hard and important work. Only beans that are carefully harvested and processed can produce high-quality and delicious coffee.