What happens when you add olive oil in coffee? Let's see...
Why try?
Being fans of coffee, healthy food and or course Extra Virgin Olive Oil we wanted to combine all three to make our own "Bullet Proof Coffee". We all know the health benefits of olive oil, so why not combine it in a famous rich coffee drink, and try replacing the coconut oil of bullet proof coffee with our olive oil?
What is Bullet Proof Coffee?
Bullet Proof Coffee is a recent phenomenon from our friends in the USA. Being sold as part healthy energy drink, part brain function drink, as well as a weight loss aid (the idea is that the drink replaces your normal breakfast). The concept originated from Dave Asprey who whilst trekking in the mountains in Tibet, was fed a highly rejuvenating butter based “Yak butter tea”, and found it gave him a lot of morning energy. You can read Dave's full story here.
Here's what's in it:
- Coffee (surprise!)
- Grass fed butter (for the extra nutrients to regular butter)
- Coconut Oil (or in our case, extra virgin olive oil)
What are the claimed benefits?
- Coffee/Upgraded coffee, as well as the providing energy boost in the morning, coffee provides various benefits and is high in anti-oxidants.
- Grass fed butter is claimed to be full of grass fed fats, nutrients and vitamins, which provides the nutritional value to “keep you going until lunch time”.
- Coconut Oil is the "brain octane oil", like olive oil it's a known super food and great for weigh loss.
Is it ok to drink?
Naturally we were a bit wary about drinking high doses of butter, mainly as it’s fatty and adds to cholesterol levels. Plus, doesn't it just sound wrong?! But we wanted to try it and see what it was all about. We went for it as a healthy energy boost rather than a weight loss/meal replacement exercise, so still ate a normal breakfast in addition to drinking the one cup of coffee.
The Nudo bullet-proof coffee recipe
What you need
- Ground Coffee – we just used our standard Italian grind supermarket coffee
- Grass fed butter – bought from a local producer in Borough market
- Nudo Extra Virgin Olive oil – many proven health benefits, is full of vitamins and nutrients, and oh so tasty!
Instructions
- Brew the coffee as you would. We used a 1 cup French press as advised, although for a purer coffee we prefer the more traditional Italian method by using a Bialetti Moka Expresso Maker.
- Once the coffee is ready, pour into a smoothie maker.
- Add 1 Tblsp of Extra Virgin Olive Oil, and 1 Tbsp of grass fed butter
- Blend until smooth and creamy
- Drink!
So how did it go?
Day 1: Here it goes...
We were a little unsure about how much olive oil to put in 1 or 2 tablespoons, we started tentatively with one table spoon. The colour and consistency of the finished brew looks very appetising so we are eager to try. To our delight, there is no oily taste or consistency, and the addition of butter makes the brew creamy so even if you usually have milk with your coffee, this mellows it out. Day one feels like a success.
Day 2: Actually this might be ok
After facing the intimidation of the first cup of coffee, we felt a little bolder and expertly brewed the coffee as per yesterday. Our thoughts were that the brew is actually pretty good. The colour and delicious smell of the coffee makes it far more appetising than it sounds on paper.
Day 3: Ok yes we can get used to this
Now in the full swing of things we are looking forward to our next cup. In terms of an energy boost we do feel good, however is this just down to the caffeine hit? It’s difficult to tell.
Day 4: Time to up the dose
So after our tip-toed start, we decide to up the ante and double up on the ingredients. Dave Asprey does warn you to slowly increase the dosage, but being as this is only a week’s trial, we go for it and add 2 Tblsp of EVOO.
The results were a bit oily though (even for us!). This dosage doesn’t work so well and although the mixture is drinkable, it's not as enjoyable as the lower 1 Tblsp dosage of olive oil.
Day 5: Do we feel different?
So after the fifth day we still don’t feel that much different than normal. Yes we have an energy boost, but we feel we would get that from the natural caffeine boost from coffee anyway.
Day 6: Difficult to tell if it’s just the coffee or the other ingredients
We do feel a little perkier today and we guess a little more “on it” but given the lack of any scientific backing in the experiment it’s difficult to tell. As a side note the ease of making the concoction is actually very useful in a small office space.
Day 7: The end of the trial
Again feeling a bit perkier than normal, but (call us cliche), we are looking forward to getting back to our Italian espressos!
Feedback and findings
- The coffee tasted much better than we expected (as you have to admit, bullet-coffee is an odd sounding recipe!). Plus it’s an easy way to get a dose of olive oil.
- We would probably make it again, but possibly if we were going for a run or had cycled into work, but not as a replacement for normal breakfast.
- The brew does suppress your appetite until lunch time so in effect does work in that sense as a meal replacement, but unsure of the long term health consequences of doing this!
- The one claim we can validate is that it is indeed “fast energy with (seemingly) no crash” although to be fair we have never suffered from an energy crash when drinking coffee.
Get your olive oil fix straight from the grove from your very own tree.