For most people, morning isn’t morning unless there’s coffee involved. Twenty years ago, that often meant burnt, long-past-its-prime coffee from the office coffee pot. Happily, even office break-rooms now sport espresso machines, while coffeehouse menus list fair-trade, shade-grown, organic beans that might have even been roasted in the coffeehouse that morning. One thing has stayed the same, though: people still put sugar and non-dairy creamer in their coffee.
Actually, non-dairy creamer pretty much is sugar with some industrially processed oil thrown in, as you can see when you read the ingredient list on French Vanilla Coffeemate: “Sugar, Hydrogenated Vegetable Oil (Coconut and/or Palm Kernel and/or Soybean), Corn Syrup Solids, Less than 2% of Sodium Caseinate (a Milk Derivative)**, Dipotassium Phosphate, Natural and Artificial Flavor, Mono- and Diglycerides, Sodium Aluminosilicate, Salt. **Not a Source of Lactose.” If you want to enjoy fresh coffee to kick off your day, adding sugars, industrially processed oil, and unnecessary fillers to your cup of joe isn’t the way to do it.
Enter bulletproof coffee. Invented by a Silicon Valley entrepreneur, bulletproof coffee is coffee blended with unsalted butter (preferably from grass-fed cows) and MCT oil (medium-chain triglyceride), which is derived from coconut oil. You need to blend it to emulsify the fats with the coffee—otherwise, you wind up with an oil slick on top. Essentially, it’s an extra-creamy latte, one that uses cream that has been churned into butter rather than unchurned, still-liquid cream. Purported benefits include everything from weight loss to increased mental performance, but those claims are controversial and vary from person to person (for me I love it and agree with the benefits!). One uncontested perk about bulletproof coffee, though, is its lack of sugar—these days, pretty much everyone except those working in the sugar industry agrees that the less sugar you eat, the healthier you’ll be.
Along with not adding sugar to your coffee, the concept of swapping out non-dairy creamer for real butter and/or coconut oil is a winner, too. Your coffee will taste much fresher and will even have a hint of natural sweetness if you use dairy products (especially from grass-fed animals) and/or coconut oil in your coffee. If you have a milk frother that heats your cream, the whipping action and heat will emulsify your dairy and/or oil—and allow you to make a latte without having to use a blender.
Freshly roasted, unburnt beans also make for better-tasting coffee that will naturally be less bitter than beans past their prime or beans that have been over-roasted (I use the bulletproof coffee beans HERE). Lighter-roasted beans taste less bitter than darker-roasted beans, too, although bear in mind that because caffeine is sensitive to heat, the lighter the roast, the more caffeine the beans will have. Cold-brewing also creates coffee with slightly higher caffeine levels.
So if you want to make your own bulletproof coffee, start with good-quality beans, then add cream, butter, and/or unprocessed oil(s) and either zip your coffee through a blender or use a heated milk frother to emulsify the dairy/oil. If you’re craving something sugary in your coffee, try nibbling on a square or two of 85% dark chocolate as you quaff your morning beverage. You’ll never be tempted by sugar cubes or non-dairy creamers again!
CLICK HERE to learn more about bulletproof coffee and purchase products on their website
