By Dan Murray, Research & Development Claims Team Manager
Research & Development or R&D as others might know it, can be found across a number of industries usually hiding in what seems like the day to day activities that a business undertakes.
Recently I came across an interesting podcast about the difficulties of growing speciality coffee in Yemen. http://tinyurl.com/y9fzwxz3
Mokhtar Alkhansal, the creator of ‘Port of Mokha’, aimed to develop the finest cup of coffee in the world. The road to developing the finest coffee in the world was not an easy one, but everyone who has tried his coffee is in agreement, it’s the best cup they’ve ever had (even at $16 a cup)!
The podcast looks at how Mokhtar created this fantastic coffee, and his production process. He was incredibly diligent in how he controlled all of the variables, looking at what could negatively affect the taste of his coffee. Once he had overcome the issues of taste, he turned his attention to scaling up production.
In his first attempt to up-scale the production and create his coffee on mass, whilst keeping the unique flavour, Mokhtar suffered a large loss, and completely ruined stock. However Mokthar did not give up, he overcame these difficulties by taking further control of all variables in the process including moisture levels in the drying process and storage. All of this has allowed him to achieve the perfect balance, reducing loss of flavour and avoiding fungus growth.
Speciality coffee is the fastest growing part of the US coffee market and is set to be a huge part of the growing UK coffee market too. If you’re a start-up in the coffee market (or even in a completely different market) with your own scientific and technological uncertainties to overcome (e.g. irrigation systems, soils acidity, scaling up your process or creating new products with unusual ingredients) please contact us on 0300 303 1903 and uncover the hidden tax relief for your development work.
Now, who wants a coffee?