The Ripeness Factor: Why Picking Coffee at the Right Moment Matters

For many coffee lovers, taste is everything. The subtle notes of fruit, chocolate, or florals are what define a great cup. But one of the most important, and often overlooked, factors behind those flavour notes is ripeness at harvest. Just like with any fruit, the stage at which a coffee cherry is picked has a direct impact on sweetness, acidity, and overall balance.

So, what’s the real difference between picking a ripe cherry versus one that’s underripe or overripe? And how can that small decision at origin affect your experience as a coffee drinker or barista? Let’s take a deeper look.

Coffee Is a Fruit – And Ripeness Matters

Coffee beans are actually seeds inside a fruit: the coffee cherry. Like any fruit, cherries go through a clear ripening process. They begin green and hard, slowly turning yellow, then red or even deep purple depending on the variety and growing conditions. The moment they reach peak ripeness, sugar content is highest and the balance of acids and aromatics is ideal.

Pick them too early, and the beans tend to be vegetal, sour, and thin. Wait too long, and fermentation inside the cherry may begin, leading to overly fermented, musty, or even mouldy notes.

What Ripe Looks Like

Ripe coffee cherries are typically:

• Bright red or deep burgundy

• Slightly soft when squeezed

• Uniform in color across the entire batch

This is the stage farmers aim for when hand-picking the cherries destined for high-quality specialty lots. It’s also the most labor-intensive, as each cherry must be evaluated individually. In contrast, mechanical harvests or strip-picking methods often gather all cherries regardless of ripeness, resulting in a mix of flavours, and often, a compromise in quality.

Taste Profiles by Ripeness

• Underripe (green/yellow cherries): High in chlorogenic acids, low in sugars. This results in sour, harsh, and grassy flavours. These beans can also be harder to roast evenly.

• Ripe (red cherries): Ideal sugar-to-acid ratio. Beans produce balanced, sweet, complex flavours with a wide range of positive notes: berries, chocolate, florals, or citrus depending on variety and terroir.

• Overripe (dark red/purple or dried): Fermentation begins inside the fruit. If well-managed (e.g., in natural processing), this can result in deep fruit notes. But if not carefully handled, the result may be overripe or winey defects, leading to muddy or off flavours.

The Farmer’s Challenge

Ensuring only ripe cherries are picked isn't just about quality. It’s also a matter of economics. Farmers need to balance labor costs with the demand for high-end coffee. Selective handpicking takes time and skill, and not every farm or region has the resources to do it consistently.

However, farms producing top-tier coffees, especially those scoring above 87+ on the SCA scale, usually take extreme care to harvest at peak ripeness. These are often the beans you’ll see offered by roasters that focus on microlots, single origins, or rare varieties like Geisha.

Processing and Ripeness Go Hand-in-Hand

Even if cherries are picked perfectly, poor processing can spoil the batch. The level of ripeness affects how coffee behaves during processing:

• Washed process: Ripe cherries ferment evenly, allowing for clean flavours and clarity.

• Natural process: Overripe cherries may dominate the batch with uncontrolled fermentation, unless dried very carefully.

• Honey process: Requires a precise balance, where ripeness influences the level of mucilage left on the bean, and in turn, the sweetness.

Great coffee doesn’t come from luck. It comes from consistency, precision, and deep knowledge at every stage, starting with ripeness at picking.

Removing unripe coffee beans

What This Means for You

If you're a home barista or casual drinker, understanding ripeness can help you appreciate the effort behind every cup. When a bag notes "selectively handpicked" or "100% ripe cherries," that’s not marketing fluff. It signals a commitment to quality at the very first step of the supply chain.

If you run a café or roastery, it’s worth asking your importer or producer about harvesting practices. Supporting farms that invest in meticulous picking often leads to better, more consistent coffee and a stronger relationship with producers who care about craft.

The journey of exceptional coffee begins at the tree. Ripeness at the moment of harvest sets the stage for everything that follows: processing, roasting, and finally, brewing. Next time you enjoy a cup with layered sweetness or clean acidity, remember the picker who chose that cherry at just the right moment. That decision, made in the field, makes all the difference in the cup.