Wine buffs look out - coffee is coming!

Fungi make coffee more tasty

By Judy Skatssoon for ABC Science Online

Fungi are the secrets to tasty coffee, says a Brazilian researcher who is the first to identify the moulds that give coffee its distinctive range of flavours and aromas.

Dr Martha Taniwaki of Brazil's Institute of Food Technology presented her research at the International Mycological Conference in Cairns this week.

Dr Taniwaki says while the characteristics of the bean partly determine taste and aroma, naturally occurring fungi also put the zing in your favourite brew.

Pete's Points

I was somwehat alarmed to read this article in full. I have a real problem with the notions mentioned a little later in the article specifically:

Some of the flavours associated with moulds included floral, citric, caramel, chocolate and toast.

The fungi occur naturally inside the coffee been and are associated with regional characteristics caused by soil, climate and humidity.

While the pleasant taste-producing fungi are not harmful to health, others can be toxic, and these often produce rancid, stinky, smoky, woody or fermented bouquets.

Without having an idea of what kind of coffee has gone into that Cappucino or Café Latte I am now wondering how much of the toxic stuff I have consumed over the years? I can certainly recall many instances all around the world where I was served coffee that met the criteria for the toxic stuff mentioned above.

I wonder whether this should be the start of yet another campaign against those who produce foods that can lead to cancer?

Let's ban the drinking of coffee unless it has first been certified as containing only the non toxic fungi. Better yet let's think about suing the people who make and serve a brew that has a rancid, stinky, smoky, woody or fermented flavour for selling stuff that is injurious to our health!

It's almost like serving toadstools instead of mushrooms!

There are laws to protect people from such events and inspectors whose job it is to see that only non injurious mushrooms are sold at markets. Why not apply the same criteria to coffee?

I suspect that this would give the coffee industry a shake up and may actually result in our obtaining coffee that tastes really nice.

Of course there is a down side or two.

Forget coffee that is only 3-4 dollars a cup.Expect to see certain cups of coffee going up in price.

I can see it now. Consider what happened with something nice and simple like wine. You know the stuff that was recommended in the Bible (a little wine for thy stomach's sake).

Everyone used to drink wine from very early days and you could always get a bottle of plonk or some more snobbish varietal.

There are those now whose lives are totally involved in the social circuit, sniffing, tasting, spitting and waxing lyrical about the content of a bottle of plonk. People around the water cooler at work who spend HOURS discussing the merits of a fine red from Pomerol versus the wonders from the Hunter Valley or some interesting little vineyard in South Australia.

What will it be like with coffee?

I wait with bated breath for the next exciting episode in this saga. And if you don't believe me then read yet another excerpt and start to worry:

"Professor Paul Gadek, an Australian plant molecular biologist and head of tropical plant sciences at James Cook University, says Dr Taniwaki's research has implications for Australia, where coffee is a growth industry."