If you have farm land in PR, most likely you have a number of coffee trees. We have quite a few on the land here and are in the process of harvesting and preparing the coffee.

The first thing that was done was to pick the coffee (red berries only, please). Next, we set them out in drying racks for a couple of weeks. This shrivels up the husk so that it can be stripped off. Next up, the dried berries get soaked and the husks removed with a homemade grindstone.

After that, we wash the beans (now they look like real coffee beans, but light in color). Right now we have our beans drying in the sun (beware the rain!). Once they get dried out, they will be ready for a final cleaning and then on to roasting. I’ll cover the roasting in another post (once the beans are ready).