I don’t always drink coffee. But when I do, I make sure its high fat and full of flavour! 

At one point in my life – coffee was my life.  I was working shifts, often with hours in the car commuting in rotten Toronto traffic.  The night I got engaged, one of the first things I said was “this means we can register for one of those fancy coffee makers”.  That was the kind of coffee drinker I used to be.

What I didn’t know is that coffee is full of chemicals, pesticides and molds.   And conventional coffee farming practices are horrendous for the wildlife and the environment.  Pesticides are sprayed to keep bugs and animals away and yields up.   Mold comes into play, because of how coffee is harvested.  When the beans are ready to be picked, they flood the fields with water and wait for the water to recede and collect the beans off the ground.  Way cheaper than hiring people to manually harvest the beans.  Wet beans waiting on the ground to be collected sounds like a pretty sweet place for mold to set in.

Did you know the chemicals used to roast and preserve coffee beans do not need to be listed on the ingredient label because they are part of the manufacturing process and not an “ingredient”?

Organic is always better in coffee!  And if you are going to drink coffee, in my opinion – don’t mess around with decaf.  Roasted coffee beans are naturally caffeinated, so the chemicals needed to extract that caffeine are a serious drawback.

Now I don’t drink coffee often, since I understand how it’s processed and how our bodies handle it.   I’ve learned to make it a treat (and some days it is a crutch)!

• Caffeine is a diuretic, which can dehydrate you.
• It’s also a stimulant, which can throw off blood sugar and cause food cravings.
• Caffeine can also deplete vitamins and minerals that your body needs.

I drink my own variation of “Bulletproof” coffee.  If you haven’t heard of Bulletproof coffee it is a brand of coffee  with includes “brain boosting” oils and organic butter.  They suggest their product can actually increase your brain power with these additions.  Truthfully I find the price of this type of product to be out of my reach.  It also sucks that you can only get it online, which means you can be held hostage by shipping.  I do love the premise of having the higher fat content in the coffee to stabilize the potential lovely pick you up, and depressing free fall of caffeine.

I use organic, fair trade whole bean coffee.   I grind it in small batches and freeze the ground beans in-between use. I brew my coffee in a French press, because there are no moldy coffee maker tubes and no waste (if you compost your grinds), and no rage that can come when your high tech fancy coffee maker is throwing a tantrum when you really need a coffee.   Just sayin’, that wedding present might have been an issue over here.

In my Bulletproof coffee I use coconut oil, as it is one of the oils that is quickly converted to energy for your body.  Coconut oil has a combination of lengths of fatty chains, including those highly sought after ones that provide energy.  Combined with the caffeine in my coffee I feel that I am getting lots of body and brain fuel.  I might feel differently if I was making life or death decisions, and I needed every bit of brain power possible, but I’m not!

Don’t worry, your coffee won’t taste like coconut.

Fun Fact One:  Coconut oil and other oils can be processed to extract certain oils based on the length of the fat molecule chains or triglycerides.  Medium length chain triglyceride (MCT) are easily converted by your body to energy.  But we can talk about MCT another day.

Fun Fact Two: Coconut oil can help boost your metabolism.

I use Ghee in place of butter, because I don’t like lactose or casein in any shape or form, organic or not. Ghee is another word for clarified butter and has amazing healing properties with no casein and lactose.

I add cinnamon for blood sugar balancing. Caffeine can pick you up when you’re feeling down, and drop you back on the floor when it’s done with you.  Cinnamon can help with the blood sugar spikes that can be caused by caffeine.  Um, and it tastes AMAZING.

You can add other things like vanilla, maple syrup, honey and home-made pumpkin spice or cacao powder.  I’ve not tried these dandy blends, but I’d love to hear from someone who has.  But one of my favourite variations is adding my homemade Nutella.  Hazelnut and chocolate flavour – can’t beat that as an addition!

So here’s my version for Bulletproof Coffee

• 1 cup hot fresh brewed coffee
• 1 tbsp unrefined cold pressed virgin coconut oil
• 2 tsp ghee
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon

Everyone in the blender. Blend for 30-45 seconds.  It will turn frothy looking and look like a latte.
Boom – Good morning!

If you don’t have a high powered blender you might have to blend a little longer.

You can’t skip the blending step (sorry sleeping family) or you will just have coffee with an oil slick on top.