Upon successful pollination the petals of the coffee flower subside giving rise to coffee fruit development, which is why the stages of fruit development are frequently measured in days after flowering (DAFs). 

While there are primarily 3 major developmental stages during fruit development: 

• Perisperm Development

• Endosperm Development

• Pericarp Development

Scientists working in this field frequently subdivide these stages further (Salmona et al., 2008) in order to gain a greater resolution of the differences and consistencies in metabolic activity between the stages.  For the purposes of the following discussion we have added an additional initial stage, referred to as "pinhead", due to the considerable time spent in this stage (17-28% of the development time). 

Coffee fruit development contributes significantly to coffee quality.  During the fruit development the ingredients for the flavour pathways, evoked during roasting, are loaded into the bean.  Conceptually one can think of the plant as a chef following a recipe, where the right ingredients need to be added in the right proportions at the right time to achieve the desired outcome when the cake or cookies are placed into the oven.

Nevertheless, unlike a conventional recipe that aims to achieve a desired sensory quality, the main purpose of seed development is propagation.  Therefore, in order to understand the influence of coffee fruit development on coffee quality, we must superimpose the sensory consequences on the biological functions.

The following section aims to provide the reader with an overview of coffee fruit development, that will be referred to in future articles.