They are productive for at least ten years.
The leaf is long and slightly serrated, and the flower white; while the
fruit hangs down like a cluster of grapes, and resembles a large cherry,
which varies from green to red, then to brown, and almost black. While
red, the outer shell is soft; but eventually it becomes perfectly hard,
until it may be compared to a wooden capsule. Blossoms and ripe fruit
are found on the same tree at the same time; so that a crop may be
gathered at almost any season of the year. After the berries are
plucked, they are spread out in spacious areas enclosed by a wall about
twelve feet high, with small drains to carry off the rain-water. Here
the coffee is allowed to dry in the heat of the sun, and it is then
shaken into large stone mortars, where it is lightly pounded with wooden
hammers, set in motion by water power. The whole mass falls into wooden
boxes attached to a long table, at which sit the negro workers, who
separate the coffee from the husk, and put it into flat copper pans. In
these it is carefully and skilfully turned about over a slow fire, until
desiccation is complete. On the whole, says Madame Ida Pfeiffer, the
preparation of the coffee is not laborious, and the harvest much more
easily gathered than one of corn. The negro, while plucking the coffee,
stands erect, and the tree protects him from the heat of the sun.
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