Coffee Enthused · Reference
When to Buy Coffee From Every Major Origin
Coffee is a fruit crop. It has a harvest season, the same as anything else that grows. A bag bought at the wrong end of that season can be a year old before it's roasted.
Roasters print the roast date. That's the easy half. The harder half is knowing whether what's in the bag was picked eight weeks ago or eleven months ago. That depends entirely on where it came from. Fourteen origins, one chart. Find yours, and buy inside the darker band.
The coffee year, origin by origin
Colombia is the exception. It grows across enough regions and altitudes that something is nearly always in season. A second smaller crop, the mitaca, runs April through June. That near-continuous supply is a large part of why Colombia is on every shelf.
The southern hemisphere runs opposite. Brazil and Peru are at their best in the second half of the year. That's exactly when the Central Americans are at their oldest. If you drink one origin all year, you're drinking last year's crop half the time.
None of this is a rule about quality. A great coffee bought out of window is still a great coffee. It's just quieter than it was. If you've ever bought a bag on a strong recommendation and wondered why it tasted flat, this is usually the answer.
The full table
| Origin | Harvest | Best time to buy |
|---|---|---|
| Ethiopia | October – January | February – June |
| Kenya | March – July | April – October |
| Rwanda & Burundi | March – July | April – September |
| Guatemala | November – April | January – July |
| Honduras | November – March | January – June |
| Costa Rica | November – March | January – June |
| El Salvador | November – March | January – June |
| Nicaragua | November – March | January – June |
| Mexico | November – March | January – June |
| Colombia | October – March, plus April – June | Close to year-round |
| Brazil | May – September | July – December |
| Peru | May – September | July – January |
| Indonesia | October – April | December – May |
| India | November – March | January – June |
Questions people actually ask
When is coffee harvested?
It depends entirely on the country. Most of Central America picks between November and March. Ethiopia runs October through January. Kenya runs March through July. Brazil and Peru sit south of the equator, so they pick May through September. That's the opposite half of the year from almost everywhere else.
How long after harvest is coffee at its best?
Roughly two to eight months after the harvest ends. That's the window in the table above, and it leaves room for processing, drying, shipping and roasting. Green coffee doesn't spoil on a fixed date. It fades. The aromatics that make a washed Ethiopian taste like citrus and jasmine are the first thing to go.
Does the roast date or the harvest date matter more?
Both, for different reasons. Roast date governs days and weeks. Most coffee is best from about four days to a month after roasting. Harvest date governs months. It decides how much flavor was there to begin with. A bag roasted three days ago from a crop picked fourteen months ago is fresh and flat at the same time.
Why is Colombian coffee available all year?
Colombia grows coffee across enough regions and altitudes that a harvest is almost always finishing somewhere. The second smaller crop, the mitaca, runs April through June. That near-continuous supply is a large part of why Colombia is on every supermarket shelf.
What does “past crop” mean?
Coffee held over from the previous harvest year. It isn't spoiled and it isn't a scandal. Much of the world's coffee is sold this way. It simply tastes quieter. Less acidity, less aroma, and a flat woody note underneath. If a coffee you were told is excellent tastes like not much, past crop is the most common explanation.
Bought inside the window and it still tastes off? Try the brewing diagnostic. Pick your symptom, change one thing.
Get the next origin in your inbox
Every issue of Coffee Enthused opens with one origin: its regions, what it tastes like, and when its harvest actually reaches the shelf. Free, every Thursday.