Decaffeination - Decaffito

Decaffito

As of 2009, progress toward growing coffee beans that do not contain caffeine was still continuing. The term "Decaffito" has been coined to describe this type of decaffeinated coffee, and trademarked in Brazil. The prospect for Decaffito type coffees was shown by the discovery of the naturally caffeine-free Coffea charrieriana, reported in 2004. It has a deficient caffeine synthase gene, leading it to accumulate theobromine instead of converting it to caffeine. Either this trait could be bred into other coffee plants by crossing them with C. charrieriana or an equivalent effect could be achieved by knocking out the gene for caffeine synthase in normal coffee plants.