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A new way to decaffeinate coffee

Published by Yazad Jal June 23rd, 2003 in Stimulants

Love your coffee but don’t want the caffeine with it? Decaf may not not the best solution as the solvents removing the caffeine also remove other chemicals which contribute to the flavour. A good project for out-of-the-box thinking. How about programming the coffee bean to stop making the caffeine altogether?

Not science fiction. Science fact. Dr. Shinjiro Ogita and his colleagues at the Nara Institute of Science and Technology in Japan are working towards just that as the Economist reports in No-caffeine solution (Site requires registration). Dr. Ogita has also written about the technique (RNA Inteference) in Nature magazine.

Sounds great. Along with coffee, I’d like to have bacon and eggs with a large serving of french fries for breakfast. Will some kind scientist please have the fat and cholestrol removed via GM?

2 Responses to “A new way to decaffeinate coffee”  

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  1. 1 Khushee Jun 24th, 2003 at 5:58 am

    Coffee without caffeine? Then why have coffee at all then? ;) :D

  2. 2 Yazad Jun 24th, 2003 at 8:37 pm

    For the flavour.

    I drink alcohol too, but not to get drunk. ;-)