The coffee plant, a member of the madder family, is an evergreen shrub with petite white blossoms, whose scent is reminiscent of gardenias. Arabica coffee plants are self-fertilizing so insects often feast abundantly. Coffee plants flourish only in countries lying between the tropics of cancer and capricorn - the lands of eternal summer. The continuous cycle by which the coffee plant bears its red cherry-like fruit depends on rainfall. If it rains ten times in one year, the plant will flower ten times, producing ripe fruit within six to eleven weeks depending on the species. The two most important species of coffee cultivated globally are arabica and robusta. Coffee plantations grow their plants from either seeds or cuttings, preferably on shady slopes with an average temperature of 70 degrees F. The best way to harvest the berries involes a painstaking process to insure the highest quality result. The ripe ruby berries, or drupes, are handpicked one by one. After the harvest, the berries are processed by one of two methods. Sixty-five percent of the world's coffee is still prepared by the traditional dry method, rather than the industrial wet method. The dry method first calls for washing the coffee berries, after which they are drained and spread in thin layers on a cloth on the ground. While the fruit ferments, it is turned several times a day with a rake, then heaped and covered at night to prevent exposure to moisture. Processing coffee fruits by the wet method requires an abundant water supply. The fruit is fermented for twelve to twenty-four hours after the initial washing by mechanically removing the fleashy outer pulp, then placing the remains in a large concrete sluiceways or washing tanks and constantly changing the water. After washing, the fruit is spread out on the ground to drain and dry as in the dry method. After two or three weeks, when thoroughly dry, the drupes are milled to remove the husk known as the parchment and the inner skin known as the silver.

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Seventeenth-century medical wisdom respected coffee as "A wholesome and physical drink, closes the orafice of the stomach, fortifies heat within, helpeth digestion, quickeneth the spirits, maketh the heart lightsome, is good against eyesores, coughs, colds, rhumes, consumption, head-ache, dropsie, gout, scurvy, king's evil, and many others." - All About Coffee, William Ukers, 1935