Nearly caffeine-free coffee bean found, awaits taste tests

BALTIMORE -- Researchers in Brazil say they've discovered a coffee bean that's nearly caffeine free.

But there's a catch. ''We haven't tasted it yet," said Paulo Mazzafera, head of the team at the State University of Campinas, which made the discovery.

The scientists found that a few of the 300 trees they grew with seeds from Ethiopia lacked caffeine synthase, the enzyme that creates caffeine.

The low-caffeine beans grew on trees that aren't productive enough for commercial growers, so they will have to be tested and crossbred with other arabica varieties to arrive at a product that is palatable and pest-resistant.

The tests could take as long as 15 years. Still, researchers are optimistic that their discovery is the basis for a bean with up to 80 percent less caffeine than most regular coffees. They published their findings last week in Nature.

Some specialists say it will be difficult to keep caffeine out of the coffee beans produced through cross-breeding.

''The question is will these beans be clobbered by pests, and will the coffee taste funny?" said John Stiles, science officer for a Hawaiian company that has been working on a decaffeinated cup of java by knocking out the gene responsible for caffeine.

Mazzafera said his work is aimed at increasing the market for decaf by attracting drinkers who are turned off by chemical- and water-based decaffeination methods, which alter the coffee's taste.

Japanese researchers said in January that they, too, had created decaffeinated coffee plants and are working on a viable product.

Caffeine, one of the most widely consumed drugs, occurs naturally in 60 plants. It increases alertness but can elevate heart rates and blood pressure. Coffee generates an estimated $70 billion in worldwide annual sales, about 10 percent from decaffeinated varieties.