PEAK OF HARVEST

In some coffee-producing origins, there is a period of time in the middle of the crop where the higher altitudes mature, and where each tree has the highest percentage of mature cherry. Under the best conditions, this is a time when the cup is possibly better, because the pickers bring in fewer under-ripe green cherries, and because the most dense, slow-to-mature cherries are including in their pickings. Of course, other problems can emerge
(too much coffee cherry, the mill can’t keep up, ripe cherry sits) that actually work against this heavy load; it would be lazy to say “mid-harvest” coffee is better. But it is rarely true that the very first pickings, nor the last where the trees are being “cleaned” of cherry yield good results.