Bulletproof Coffee

This post was way overdue, since I'm a big coffee lover, coffee bean "collector" & always include a few visits to the best coffee places during my travels and bring home coffee beans to try.
So of course I was intrigued when I first heard about Bulletproof Coffee.

First of all, what is Bulletproof coffee? At a glance, it's coffee with butter blended in, but there's a little more to it. The founder of Bulletproof Executive, Dave Asprey, discovered buttered coffee when he was in Tibet. Surprised by the rejuvenating effect, he came up with the recipe for Bulletproof Coffee.



On the website, he explains about the presence of toxins & molds in most coffee beans, so he decided to source his own beans, making sure the were the best quality possible. As a coffee lover, this makes a lot of sense.
Now, there are a lot of opinions out there on the quality of coffee, and the skeptics towards Bulletproof Coffee mostly talk about the fact that it's pretty hard to produce coffee that's 100% mold-free.
Growing coffee is quite tricky, since it's done under constantly varying conditions (like weather)
There are a few factors that will contribute to mold-development in coffee beans:

- Dry pocessed coffee beans. A lot of coffee beans are left to the elements to dry, allowing mold to develop quicker and easier.
- Low elevation of growing the crops, coffee from higher elevations tends to be better quality.

Other ways to ensure you are drinking coffee lower in mycotoxins:
- single origin, no blends
- arabica beans
- no decaf coffee

Now, I am not looking here whether the claims are true or not, but simply if the coffee tastes good, and I have to say, it does. Before trying it with butter, I made a regular cup (with a clever drip) and the aromatic, smooth taste was excellent.
The price of €18,95 for a 12 oz. bag is quite in the range of other single origin coffees, a rough comparison:

Passion House Coffee Roasters - Yirgacheffe Aricha
12 oz. $16.95
Philz Coffee - Fair Trade organic Peru
12 oz. $20
Big Island Coffee Roasters - Hawaiian Maui Mokka Coffee
8 oz. $16.95
Wild Coffee - Peru Light
12 oz. $17.50

Now, on-wards to the test!

What do you need? I made 1 cup (about 250 ml)

1 tbsp butter (recommended is Kerrygold, but unfortunately it's not sold here, so I used a local grass-fed brand)
1 tbsp coconut oil (ideally you use MCT oil, but coconut oil comes pretty close)
about 20 grams of coffee beans

Tools:
coffee grinder
immersion blender
scale
clever drip
big mug, glass or shaker cup

Make the coffee as usual, I use a drip timer app with the clever drip, which works really well for me, but use any timer you like.
Since my coffee glass wasn't big enough, I put the butter and coconut oil in a large shaker cup, so the immersion blender would fit in.

Before blending

Have the coffee pour in, and blend for about 15-20 seconds. I then poured the coffee over in a tall coffee glass. You get a nice foamy layer on top, it looks a bit like a latte.

The taste is is really nice, creamy and has lots of flavor. Felt energized all day and satiated. Since this was a weekend and my activities are very different from during the week, I also wanted to give it a go during the work-week, having only bulletproof coffee in the morning instead of my usual breakfast of bacon & eggs. This would be a true test, since normally I eat quite a lot in the morning, and then have a 10K bike ride to work at a fast pace. Breakfast is between 6.30-7am, and I will be hungry by noon-time.

Nice foamy top

It took a bit getting used to, not eating anything and just drink the coffee, but it went surprisingly well.
Wasn't hungry the entire morning, although my stomach started to grumble a bit around 11 am. Felt good and had plenty of energy!
Finally had lunch at around 1, but wasn't as hungry as I'd expected.

The verdict?

It is a great change to having regular coffee, and if you're looking to start your day full of energy, this is the recipe for you. For people looking to stay low carb, buttered coffee is an excellent option as well.
The quality of the coffee was excellent, I've used it a lot for making just regular coffee as well.
If you've already been thinking about trying this, definitely give this a go!

You can get all the ingredients needed for a bulletproof coffee by getting the coffee kit.

Order Bulletproof Coffee here now and get 10% off with code NEWBP.




Other sources:

Dr. Weil on Bulletproof Coffee
End of Three Fitness on BPC
Marks Sisson's Primal Egg Coffee

(I didn't get bribed or paid to write this review. If I think a product is crap, I'll write that too. However, if you order through any of the links provided, I'll earn a small commission. With that money, I can keep this blog going. Or buy bacon)