Carl Mertens Wittwe

Stop Scrolling… this is where coffee begins. ☕️👀

What looks like a simple fruit is actually the beginning of countless aromas.

Here you can see the inside of a ripe coffee cherry – the beans still surrounded by fruit pulp and mucilage. This is where the journey begins: from cherry to green bean, and eventually into your cup.

Coffee quality is often decided right here:
👉 only ripe cherries
👉 careful picking
👉 precise processing

Because great coffee doesn’t begin in the roastery – it begins on the plantation. 🌱☀️

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Ever wondered where great coffee begins?

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This isn’t just fruit.
It’s the very first stage of flavor.

A fully ripe coffee cherry holds sweetness, sugars, and the future character of the cup inside.

Every great coffee starts with a moment exactly like this. ☕️

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Dried on the plant

What looks like character here
is often, in reality, a loss of quality.

When a coffee cherry is picked too late,
sugars, structure, and balance start to change.
Control is lost and so is flavor.

Between perfect and past its peak
there are often just a few days.

☕️
What do you think – interesting or rather a flaw?

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From cherry to cup – it all starts here.

This is a visual comparison of a ripe and an unripe coffee cherry.
The difference is not just in size – it’s in everything that defines flavor.

The ripe cherry is fuller, juicier, and naturally sweeter.
Inside it lies the foundation of what we later experience as complexity, aroma, and balance in the cup.

Great coffee doesn’t begin with roasting.
It begins in the selection of the cherries.

Only fully ripe cherries unlock the true character of coffee – clean, vibrant, and full of life.

Freshly picked. Carefully selected.
That’s where exceptional coffee truly

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From unripe to natural processed

The cross section reveals what you normally never see:
Inside a coffee cherry there are usually two beans but sometimes three can develop.

Unripe coffee cherry are still green, the beans are soft and not fully developed.

Ripe coffee cherry sweet and ready to be harvested.

Natural process
The whole cherry dries around the beans, allowing sugars and fruit flavors to move into the coffee.

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The Natural Process

Right after harvest, the whole cherries are laid out in the sun on patios or raised beds. No depulping. No washing. The bean remains surrounded by its fruit pulp, sugars, and mucilage throughout the entire drying phase.

Over several weeks, the cherries slowly lose moisture. During this time, natural fermentation begins: the sugars in the fruit start to work, flavors develop, and the bean absorbs the sweetness and intense fruit characteristics from the pulp.

Only when the ideal moisture level is reached is the dried husk removed — revealing the green bean inside, shaped by time and sun.

Typical for natural coffees:
pronounced fruit sweetness
berry or tropical notes
full body
smooth

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Ripe coffee cherry - the moment when sweetness, acidity, and aroma reach their peak.
Inside this fruit begin the flavors that later end up in your cup. ☕️🍒♥️

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This is what a perfectly ripe coffee cherry looks like on the inside.
Deep red skin on the outside and two pale beans wrapped in their sweet sticky mucilage

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Freshly pressed coffee cherry with natural sweetness at the heart of the honey process

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