The first coffee plant was found in Ethiopia in the 11th century, nowadays there are an estimated six thousand varietals in Africa. A coffee plant can produce fruit -the cherry- after its second year and at seven years old it will reach full maturity. A coffee plant here in Nicaragua will typically produce cherries for 25-30 years. Depending on terroir (climate, soil and altitude) and varietal producers can expect a yield of around 100 cherries or 6-12kgs each harvest from one tree. From the start of flowering to harvest time will take approximately 9 months, just like a having baby. Once the cherries are ready to harvest you have roughly 8-10 days to pick them before they become overripe. Surprisingly, every 2-3 years a coffee plant has a 'down-year' where it will not produce any fruit, and will regain its strength for the next season. 

There are 5 layers to the coffee cherry:

• Skin/Pulp: On the outside, the two coffee seeds are covered by a cherry-like skin. The skin is mostly considered a by-product, all of the farms we saw used the pulp as fertilizer, however increasingly 'Cascara' tea is being made out of the pulp as it is caffeinated and sweet. 
  
• Mucilage: Under the skin lies the mucilage, a sticky, sweet substance surrounding each of the two seeds. Since it is so sticky and sugary, it is sometimes dried on the seed and this is called the Honey Process.
  
• Parchment: After the mucilage, a layer of cellulose protects each of the coffee seeds. When dried, this layer looks and feels like parchment paper, hence the name.
  
• Silver skin/Chaff: Further inside, an even thinner layer coats the seed. This layer is called the silver skin because of its somewhat silverish sheen. This layer comes off during roasting. If you ever notice flakes in ground coffee, that is usually bits of silver skin or chaff that didn’t separate from the beans during the roast process.
  
• Seed/Coffee Bean: The coffee bean is one of the two seeds from inside the coffee cherry. However there is an anomaly where only one bean is formed these are called Peaberries. 

THE HARVEST

While we visited his farm, Armando was in the peak of harvesting his coffee crop and he gave us the opportunity to give coffee picking a try! Picking coffee can be a very challenging task because of the difficulty in navigating terrain with its steep muddy hills. The coffee trees are planted so close together, you would be lucky not to get a branch in the eye doing this job every day. Not to mention how difficult it must be carrying these heavy bags of coffee cherries up and down the slippery mountainside and back to the processing area. Troy and I decided to have a ‘coffee pick-off’, to see who could pick the most coffee. Sadly, neither of us were any good, nor were we fast enough, dashing all my future hopes of living out my days on a coffee farm. Armando’s foreman told us that the amount we picked in half an hour he would expect the workers to pick in 5-10 minutes. An experienced picker can collect over 25kg (55lb for you Canadians) of cherries in two and a half hours, but hey who's counting. Quality over quantity is my new motto.