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countries have one or two harvests annually.
    Within a given region, not all beans ripen simultaneously. One farm at higher altitude that experiences dry conditions may harvest its coffee a month later than others in the area. The beans on a farm with greater sun exposure may ripen earlier than one shaded by trees or a mountain. Often, the earlier ripening and picked coffees are lower quality. In the coffee industry, here’s the rule of thumb: Middle-arriving beans are the best. Of course, as in all things coffee, there’s an asterisk. Coffee pickers, typically paid by their yield and not for their discernment, may pick unripe or past-prime cherries to earn more money. Beans are simply more plentiful at the early and late stages of the season.
    Green coffee, like roasted coffee, can go stale. So regardless of harvest time quality range, it’s wise to buy green coffees six weeks after harvest to allow for processing and shipment. Beans available earlier, sometimes called new crop beans, likely come from the lowest elevation. Coffees bought late in the season may have lost flavor, either from over-ripeness, inadequate or improper storage before processing, or flavor loss due to warehousing after processing. Exceptions to this are the so-called aged coffees, green beans specially stored in climate-controlled conditions so they can soften, or lose acidity.
    Once you purchase green beans, you have a second roughly six-week window to roast them at their peak.
AGAIN GRACEFULLY
When properly controlled and when used in blends or as single origins, the aged effect offers qualities prized by the coffee connoisseur. However, I caution the novice who attempts to purchase aged coffee. It’s a fine line line between aged and old. The allure of green beans labeled “aged” has fooled even the most veteran coffee buyers.
Colombia, Venezuela, Sumatra, Java, and India sometimes offer aged coffees. India’s Monsoon Malabar is named for its storage through the monsoon season, which reportedly subjects it to unusual conditions and creates a strong flavor you either love or hate.
    Global Coffee Harvests
    This chart lists several coffee-growing regions and their harvest times, followed by approximate dates for shipping each season’s coffee crop. Most of the Northern Hemisphere’s peak harvest time is between December and March. Most of the Southern Hemisphere’s peak harvest time is from May through September. (6–8 weeks shipping time implies market availability.

    Buying Fresh Roasted Beans
    Where can you buy green beans? Before the 1990s, consumers couldn’t. Commercial green brokers almost never sold direct to consumers, and those who did often sold them by 150-pound (68 kg) bags. Consumers who approached local commercial roasting companies met perplexed, even offended, roast masters who acted like a restaurant chef asked to sell a steak for someone to cook at home.
    The Internet changed all of this, making it possible to find online sources for beans at a range of prices and sizes. Not sure where to start online? Search for award-winning green beans. Buy a few pounds (enough to last awhile and make shipping economical but not so much that you’re stuck if you don’t enjoy it). And remember that you want to use them while they’re still fresh. That’s the whole idea. Sign up for home roast coffee forums and become active. Word of mouth is a good way to find the good stuff. You know you’ve arrived when you find yourself setting an alarm for 2:00 AM so you can bid on some Kenya AA “Best of Cup” award-winning lots. Then you’ll know the real reason for caffeine. For specific places to buy green coffee online, see the “Resources” section in the back of the book, starting on page 168.
    When buying already-roasted coffee beans, someone else chose the green beans and presumably followed the guidelines we just discussed. Make sure you check the roast (which we cover in chapter 3 , “Coffee Roasts and Roasting”) because a