Seeds or cuttings, planted in special nursery beds and shaded from the direct sunlight, propagate coffee. In order to grow, coffee requires great care throughout every stage of its life, from the seedling to the cup.

With the climate being so unpredictable, there is no guarantee that the inherent quality of a crop will remain the same from season to season.

After germination, young seedlings are transplanted into nursery beds for eight months to a year. They are then transplanted into fields where they are placed in well-manured holes.

The trees begin to yield fruit when they are between three to five years old and continue to produce a good yield for up to 30 years. However, in Ethiopia, trees as old as 80 years exist - and they still generate fruit.

After every rainfall the coffee trees produce a fragrant blossom reminiscent of jasmine. These little white flowers hang by the dozen in bunches at the base of the leaves. After two or three days the flowers wilt and develop into dark green berries. These berries take quite a long time to mature (Arabica up to eight months and Robusta up to 11 months) and during this time they gradually transform from dark green to yellow. Apart from the Yellow Bourbon variety of coffee, which is ripe when it turns yellow, the others become deep red in colour For this reason the fruit of a coffee tree is referred to as the coffee cherry.

The cherries usually contain two coffee seeds or beans about 1.54cm in length, covered by a thin delicate layer called "silver skin", encased in a thin brittle husk called pergamino, also known as parchment. Occasionally, at the tip of the branch, only one small rounded bean can be found. This flavoursome bean is known as a Peaberry because of its shape. These peaberries occur naturally and amount to 5% of the tree’s yield.