Do You Like Your Coffee 'Bulletproof?'

It’s been well-documented that hipsters love artisanal coffee, coconut oil, and going Paleo. (Really, any eating trend that involves recounting which foods they are and are not eating this week: “I’m back on gluten after my yeast-inhibiting juice cleanse, but I’m totally focused on eating clean now.”) Now they’ve found a way to combine bizarre eating habits with another hipster pastime: Trips to obscure parts of the world. Enter “Bulletproof coffee.” It’s coffee, but with butter in it. Butter coffee.

Burgeoning hipster icon Shailene Woodley told Food & Wine Magazine she greets every day with a cup of buttered joe:

“I start almost every day with something called Bulletproof coffee. It sounds weird, but it’s coffee blended with butter and oil—-I use coconut oil. The idea is to get the fat you need in the morning, so during the day, your body’s not trying to accumulate fat—-it’s already been satiated.”

No offense, Shailene, but that’s not actually the idea. According to Dave Asprey, who imported the idea of Bulletproof® coffee to the United States in 2010, frothing butter and oil is supposed to keep you energized longer, not prevent you from eating other fats. He discovered this while climbing mountains in Tibet, obviously:

“I learned about the power of butter at 18,000 feet of elevation near Mt. Kailash in Tibet. I staggered into a guest house from the -10 degree weather and was literally rejuvenated by a creamy cup of yak butter tea.”

So, in his trademarked “Bulletproof® Coffee” recipe, you make the exact same thing. Except it’s not tea, it’s coffee made with the specialty Bulletproof® Upgraded (TM) coffee beans he sells on his website. (Fun fact about the coffee you buy from the grocery store, according to Asprey: “Toxins in cheap coffee steals your mental edge and actually makes you weak.”) And you don’t add yak butter, you add butter from grass-fed cows. (Use unsalted butter. Because adding butter to your coffee is hip and health-conscious, but adding salt would just be gross. Per Asprey: “Bleah.”) And in addition to adding not-yak-butter, stir in a tablespoon of Bulletproof® Upgraded (TM) Brain Octane (TM), which is a custom extract of coconut and palm kernels that Asprey sells in a $46 32-ounce bottle on his site.

The bastardized, non-trademarked version of the recipe is to add a couple tablespoons apiece of butter and some kind of oil (usually coconut oil) to your morning coffee. “Bulletproof coffee,” or butter coffee, is swiftly replacing green juice in Los Angeles as the braggy morning beverage of choice. Word has it that the trend is spreading—it’s already been spotted in Seattle. Frankly, we’re surprised Paula Deen didn’t think of it first.