When the time to be harvested comes, the coffee fruit turns a dark cherry color – it usually takes place 9 months after blossoming. There is usually only one harvest per year. North of the equator, the harvest takes place between September and March. South of the equator, the harvest usually takes place in April and May.

Equatorial countries harvest fruit all year round. Ripe fruits are picked with small rakes or brought down to earth with poles, somewhere coffee is gathered manually. New technologies allow harvesting to be processed with special automatic machines. Using a machine is, of course, cheaper but the ripe cherries are not always and green cherries can be mixed in with the others.

As a result, the coffee will taste bitterer. Most coffee, however, is picked by hand. Selective picking makes the pickers carefully select only the fully ripened fruit and make several passes among the trees in about 10 until all the fully ripe beans are taken. Selective picking is, obviously, more expensive and is usually only used for Arabica beans. But it produces the best result that proves the worldwide popularity.

During the harvest season, whole families - men, women and children - join in the work. On average, the pickers can gather between 100 and 200 pounds of coffee cherries a day.