Lets talk COFFEE, Better than bulletproof.

I do a lot of things a little bit differently to most people and making coffee is no exception. Today I am going to share what I consider to be my ultimate coffee experience. First a bit of fun, my entire life history with coffee.

I had my first cup of coffee when I was 6 Years old. I still remember that tan brown ceramic mug sitting in the middle of our kitchen table. You see my father was a regular coffee drinker and back in 1987 coffee meant instant, so one evening as he often did my father made a fresh cup of International Roast, placed it upon the kitchen table, then for reasons unknown to me left it and went to have a shower. I curiously watched this cup counting down in my head how long it would be before the liquid inside cooled. After half an hour, it dawned on me that my father had left the house and the coffee was to be wasted. Thinking it a shame to waste, I picked up the cup, feeling it was still luke warm, decided it was too good to waste and had my first taste of what is considered low grade instant coffee.

While International Roast will never win any awards for anything, its unique ‘cheap coffee’ flavor always brings back memories of stealing my fathers cups through my adolescent years. Throughout high school I fell in love with Iced coffee, happily drinking a litre a day, but things really changed one day when my mother on a whim purchased me a shiny new percolator. I was in the big leagues now, real ground coffee I could brew on the stovetop. Suffice to say I had a lot of trouble sleeping as a teenager, but the flavor of coffee, be it the cheapest powdered instant or the most refined fresh roasted beans I could find, I wanted it all.

I left highscool and joined the military. Honestly not the best career move for me but I did learn a few interesting skills, including the ability to sleep standing up. My coffee habit reached new heights, at its most disturbing I was scooping my cup into the coffee powder, half filling it. My 20’s were an on again off again love affair, by my 30’s however I gave up completely, mainly due to coffees ability to make me urinate every ten minutes.

For the past 6 years I have been on a biohacking mission learning everything I can about the human body in regards to health and nutrition. A major turning point being the discovery that I am insulin resistant and all that urniating I was doing, was not the fault of coffee, which is considered a diaretic, but the obscene amounts of sugar I was using.

Once sugar was removed from my life, I was able to rekindle my love of coffee. Removing sugar from your coffee opens up a whole new world of flavor and experience. On holiday in Tasmania 3 years ago, a friend and I embarked on a ‘coffee crawl.’ Much like a pub crawl where you start at one pub, have a beer then move to the next pub and repeat. We found ourselves in the small town of Zeehan, with a large number of cafes. After drinking coffee at every establishment we could find we had consumed a total of 12 cups. The highlight of this experience, one little cafe that serves candy bananas with their coffee. Something I have never seen anywhere else in the world.

Before I get to my ultimate cup, one more story. I was once at a 3 day music festival, out in the Victorian bushland. Both my friend and I had a craving for some coffee but both of us were lacking the required funds to purchase one from the overpriced market stalls and festival rules dictated a strict no fire policy, so heating water or using the percolator was out of the question. Not one to give up on the desire for a coffee hit, we made coffee sandwiches. White bread, honey and ground coffee beans. The honey in this case is not used as a sweetner, but its role is to give the coffee grounds something to stick to so they dont fall out of the sandwich.

Around 18 months ago, I heard about the ‘bulletproof’ coffee revolution. I have tried it and on my journey discovered a whole range of butters that I did not know existed. I have used cocunut oil as well, but there just seems something missing. Sure biodynamic organic grass fed butter blended through the finest beans has a delightful velvety softness and flavor that is hard to compete with, but just like ‘cold brew’ I think the hype and elitism that comes with drinking non mainstream coffee is the real source of its success.

let me breakdown my perfect cup. Water, coffee beans and additives.

Water is pretty simple, Fresh rainwater, it falls out the sky for free and where I live in the world at least, its exceptionally high quality. I will use water anywhere from really hot to kinda warm. I am honestly not that fussy about temperature and my coffee making method is very forgiving. Unlike a percolator or espresso machine which requires high temperature to extract the goodness from the bean, all I require is a simple large mug, about half full.

Coffee beans. A pretty important thing when your trying to make coffee. If you use anything else, then your just making tea. For me the greatest coffee I have ever tried in the entire word is ‘Negrita’
Its a dark roast and we are talking some serious flavor here. Secondly it is according to the packet ‘middle eastern style’ basically instead of being ground, its whole coffee bean, but finely powdered. When preparing this style off coffee in the traditional way, there is expected to be a layer of sediment in the cup as you drink it.

Additives. I guess this is where most of the population would put things like milk, or butter, and sweeteners like sugar, honey or any of those chemicals like Nutrasweet or stevia. For me its cream and salt. I do enjoy a ketogenic diet, so I am always looking for ways to up the healthy fat intake in my diet. Good old fashioned cream is a whopping 35% fat, or if I am feeling particularly indulgent, then Jersey cream comes in at 50%. The real advantage to using cream over something like butter for bulletproof coffee, is you don't have to blend it, just stir it in with a spoon, zero separation. Plus the flavor is beyond decadent compared to even the very best in butter. A high fat content also help with the delivery of fat soluble nutrients, especially compared to things like milk. For any vegans out there or if you just want to try something different, Coconut cream also yields interesting results.

Lastly the salt. It was during coffees rise to hipster stardom I hear on the radio that in serious coffee drinking countries such as Italy, there are place where instead of sweeteners like sugar, that actually add a dash of salt to their cups. At the time I found this notion quite absurd, but time is a good teacher. These days I actually add a special blend of salt to my drinking water, but thats a different story. Just a tiny pinch of salt added to even the crudest of coffee blends will change the flavor from acrid and bitter to velvet and smooth. If you truly love the flavor of coffee, then you really need to try it at least once in your life.

The Recipe
Combine hot(ish) water, two decent teaspoons of Negrita, a very generous helping of cream and a pinch of salt, observe the cool patterns the cream makes as it hits the water. Briefly stir and enjoy.

One of the advantages to using hot(ish) water is your brew is instantly drinkable, no waiting for it to cool down. Because we are using powdered whole roasted beans, we are getting 100% of the flavor without any risk of burning the coffee with excess heat. The cream helps the powdered bean stay suspended for what I like to describe as a ‘velvety mud’ experience. And the serious part, besides tasting amazing, one decent cup will keep you awake for days. It has been described as ‘better than crystal meth’

And that my friends, is my idea of the 'perfect cup' of coffee.

Thanks for reading.