Nature delivers decaf coffee

A cup of decaf could soon taste as good as freshly ground after the discovery of a new naturally caffeine-free coffee plant, it has emerged.

The plant is an Ethiopian variety of Coffea arabica, the most cultivated coffee in the world.

Scientists hope to cross it with commercial crops to make brands of natural decaf that could be available within five years.

Decaffeinated coffee has proved to be expensive to make from normal coffee and does not taste the same.

Researchers in Brazil studied 3,000 coffee plants from Ethiopia, and found three that had almost no caffeine.

Writing in the journal Nature, the researchers, led by Paulo Mazzafera, from the University of Campinas, said the quality of the natural decaf had not yet been tested.