The ‘fly crop’ or ‘mytaca’ - another of coffee's hidden gems
⏰ Right now, coffee farmers are racing against time. In coffee regions across the northern hemisphere, harvest season is upon us.
🌱 The beautiful complexity? Different regions dance to different rhythms. Kenya's main harvest runs October-December, but their 'fly crop' (also known as mytaca) in April-June often produces the most exceptional cups. While one farm is picking, another is flowering, and yet another rests, creating the year-round variety that makes coffee so endlessly fascinating.
So onto the ‘fly crop’ or ‘mytaca’; it represents one of coffee's most fascinating agricultural phenomena.
🌱 Secondary harvest cycles are known as ‘fly crop’ or ‘mytaca’, they're irregular summer harvest periods that occur roughly six months after the main harvest. The term is used primarily to describe harvests in Kenya and Colombia, though the phenomenon occurs in other coffee-growing regions too.
📅 Colombia's secondary harvest runs around six months later than the main crop. Kenya's occurs in cyclical opposition to the main crop harvest, yielding smaller amounts of coffee.
Here's what makes these secondary harvests special
☕ While usually marked by lower volumes and quality, exceptional fly crop lots can surprise with concentrated flavours and unique characteristics. Colombia has a significant second harvest, occurring April to June, creating opportunities for year-round sourcing of fresh coffee. Kenya's mytaca is September to December.
💡 The magic lies in the unpredictability. These smaller harvests are influenced by different weather patterns, stress levels on the trees, and processing conditions, creating flavour profiles that can be completely different from the same farm's main crop.
Why this matters for specialty coffee
👨🌾 Fly crop / mytaca coffees offer roasters and coffee lovers the chance to experience how seasonality shapes flavour. When exceptional lots emerge from these secondary harvests, they're often snapped up by roasters who understand that smaller doesn't always mean lesser quality.
At Coffee Gems, we evaluate every lot on its own merits, whether it's main crop or fly crop. When a exceptional secondary harvest meets our standards of 86+, we're holding coffee that tells a unique story of agricultural timing and the farmer's deep understanding of their land's rhythm.
