Natural decaffeinated is coming
Coffee purists will be horrified to read this news, but now it’s a fact.
A group of brazilian researchers managed to grow some plants (about 300) of decaffeinated coffee. The discovery could bring on the market some new coffee aromas, tastier and above all without caffeine. Brazilian researchers have overcome what is already happening in nature.
Coffee plants without caffeine already grow, in the wild, in Madagascar, but their beans are poor and unsuitable to make coffee. By crossing 3000 coffee plants from Ethiopia, researchers have succeeded in producing three plants virtually caffeine-free: they contain a fifteenth of that contained in the qualities on the market.
Down with caffeine. Almost 10 per cent of the coffee consumed all over the world is without caffeine.
To remove caffeine from coffee many different and expensive industrial processes are used: organic solvents, carbon dioxide are effective to remove caffeine from the beans, but they take off some compounds too, which are very important for the taste.
A much more expensive alternative, but respectful of the taste includes the use of some carbon filtres.
The best solution would be that of a natural production. Long crossbreedings. At least this is the hope of the researchers who are far from the possibility of bringing their quality of coffee on the market. Plants grow more slowly from the normal and nobody has already succeeded at drinking a coffee made from the new species. For this reason, new different crossbreedings between plants are being studied to make the growth faster.
It could take even 10 years and the delay would benefit competitors. Like coffee genetically modified to have no caffeine could be ready in a few years. Moreover, it would have the complete lack of caffeine, while the natural one still retains some traces. But who does not trust the GMO could consider Brazilian research a great reason to wait.