It's been about three months since I first tried Dave Asprey's bulletproof coffee. I can now self-diagnose myself as an addict. I missed a day this week because I ran out of coffee filters and was one disgruntled puppy.
I tend to take a dim view of connoisseurs as I'm a proletarian at heart, but I retract my teasing about Dave being an optimizer. Actually following his recipe makes a huge difference. Recall that I first made it with the ingredients I had on hand and used espresso rather than brewed coffee. Over time, I started substituting in the "official" ingredients and every change made it better. The first change was getting some KerryGold butter (mmm...). Then a friend at work saw my post and told me he'd been having it every morning for months and brought in some Upgraded Coffee for me to try. Yep, it was better. Now convinced that orthodoxy was worth the effort, I broke down and ordered a bag of Upgraded Coffee and MCT oil. I also ordered a burr grinder and a handy drip coffee maker. Finally, I replaced the KerryGold with cultured grass-fed butter. The result: Coffee Nirvana.
I also ended up (inadvertently) Bulletproof Fasting by skipping breakfast one morning due to time constraints. The coffee held me just fine until lunchtime. Now I don't bother with breakfast at all, as I feel better if I skip it than if I actually eat.
What does better mean in this context? That's hard to describe. Asprey says it makes you feel like "a great golden god". That's actually kind of accurate. You'll have to try it for yourself to know what I mean. There's no edge or jitter from the coffee - just a smooth, even mental energy. The fat in the butter and oil satisfies your appetite and because there's no carbohydrates you don't get an insulin spike and subsequent crash. It's awesome. Eating breakfast muddles up the mental clarity, even if it's a good paleo breakfast.
Perhaps the best testimonial I can offer is that the Better Half has adopted it as her new morning standard. This is the woman for whom my standard line has been "Would you like some coffee with your sugar?" for years. The only downside is I need to teach her to make it so I can sleep in. And with two of us burning through the stuff, I had to order a bigger bag.
This is essentially the same as Dave's, but I'll include it here for completeness.
- 500ml water
- 2 Tbsp Upgraded Coffee (fresh-ground)
- 1 Tbsp Coconut Oil
- 1 Tbsp MCT oil
- 5 Tbsp Organic Valley Cultured Pastured Butter
Pour the water in a small saucepan. While it's coming up to a boil, grind the coffee and get the drip and filter setup. Once the water boils, let it rest for about 30 seconds and then pour it into the dripper. Put the lid on the dripper to keep the heat in and then put the butter and oil in the still hot saucepan. The hot pan melts most of the butter down so when I pour in the coffee it pretty much dissolves instantly. Then hit it with an immersion blender for about 30 seconds to get it good and foamy and that's it. Soup to nuts it takes less than 10 minutes, and has become an enjoyable morning ritual.
Economics
I was telling my Dad about the recipe (he normally puts down a pot of coffee a day) and he questioned the expense. So I did some napkin math:
- Coffee: 2 cups worth @ .50 per cup = 1.00
- Butter: roughly 1/4 stick = 1.00
- MCT oil: 1 Tbsp = 0.70
- Coconut oil: 0.25
That's a total of $2.95 for a big travel mug's worth.
My ex-coffee love was a medium Caribou mocha. Try getting one of those for 3 bucks, I dare you. Not to mention that it's also my breakfast. And it makes me feel awesome. That's a pretty good deal in my book.
That's enough gushing. You should really try one.