When grown in the tropical regions, coffee is a thick bush or small tree which grows to a height of 10–12 feet. Bushes grow best at high altitudes but cannot  grow where it is cold or frosty. Plants can withstand severe pruning. To produce the maximum yield of coffee berries, the plants need substantial amounts of water and fertilizer.

There are many species of Coffea that may be grown for the beans, but Coffea arabica is considered to be of  the best quality. The other species (especially Coffea canephora) are grown on land unsuitable for Coffea arabica.

The leaves are, depending on the growth stage, deep green, light green and bronze yellow. The coffee tree blossoms is clustered and white in color. It is sweet scented like the  Spanish jasmine. The flowers  give way to a red or purple drupes (coffee berries),  depending on the coffee  plant variety.

The fruit takes about nine months to ripen and often contain two seeds. In about 5-10% of the crop of coffee cherries, the cherry will contain a single bean, rather than the two usually found. This is called a 'peaberry’ and contains a distinctly different flavor when compared to the normal crop, with a higher concentration of  flavors, especially acidity, present due to smaller sized bean. This is usually removed from the yield and either sold separately  or discarded.

Coffee trees  will bear fruits after 3–5 years and last for about 50–60 years (up to 100 years is also possible). Worldwide, an estimated 15 billion coffee trees are growing on 100,000 km² of land.