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A C O F F E E S T O R Y
Harvesting
Four years after it is first planted, the barako tree produces
its first harvest — big, red cherries known in Tagalog as
makapal
, a name that describes the thick layer of fruit
that wraps each coffee seed. Visit between December and
February, when the coffee picking season in the Philippines
commences. In Cavite this is still done the old-school way
— by hand, with a basket tied around the waist, and a
kawit
(a long, wooden hook) used to snag the higher branches and
pull them down for easy reach. In farms with taller trees,
children are the preferred coffee pickers; they simply clamber
up the trunk to reach the cherries in the highest branches.
Coffee pickers harvest
cherries the old-school way
— by hand; the barako seed
is larger and thicker than
regular coffee seeds