There are different ways to harvest the coffee. You can hand-pick only the ripe berries from each cluster, you can scratch all the berries by hand on a branch, regardless of their stage of ripeness, and you can use a pneumatic device that shakes the branches so that the ripe berries fall to the ground.
When only the ripe berries are hand-picked, they are prepared according to what is usually called the wet method. This means that the berries are placed in a peeling machine, a pulper, which removes most of the pulp. Then the berries are allowed to lie in a basin for 1-3 days. In the basin, naturally occurring enzymes work and dissolve the remaining pulp. After that, the beans are washed. They are then dried and when dried, the two membranes, the silver membrane and the parchment membrane, are peeled off using a machine.
With the other harvesting methods, the beans are collected in sixty liter baskets. Any twigs, leaves and the like are sorted out and the berries are washed. In the washing, the ripe berries are separated from old, dry berries that have started to rot. Then they must be dried. This is done on large concrete terraces where the berries are allowed to lie in the sun and dry for 15-20 days. During that time, they are turned approximately every twenty minutes so that the drying will be as even as possible. The ideal moisture content of coffee beans is 11-12 percent, and when the beans have reached that, the skins are peeled off in a machine. The coffee beans are packed and sent on to be classified.