Karamu occurs as a shrub to small tree throughout N.Z.  Flowers from September to November followed by dense clusters of red to orange berries in March.  These are eagerly harvested by birds.

Maori children ate ripe coprosma berries, described as sweet and juicy with a bitter after taste.

Settlers in the late 19th century, sensing the relationship of coprosma to the coffee plant, did try roasting and grinding the seed of karamu and taupata.  Notes from a meeting of the Wellington Philosophical Society describe that “the beans …… when roasted and ground have a splendid coffee aroma and when made into coffee the result seems to be thoroughly satisfactory.”  Coprosma and Coffea (the coffee plant) both belong in Rubiaceae, the madder family.