Cream has three problems, the most important of which is it has to be purchased frequently, but also it's not cheap, and it's calorific.
But cream has one fantastic advantage - it's yummy. But I'm trying to wean myself off of cream due to the calories in it.
I've tried almond milk but not coconut oil (I may need to try that). (What's the calorie content of coconut oil versus the cream though?)
Doesn't coffee act like a stimulant alredy?
Yes. You understand. A good creamy coffee helps keep the calories away. The fat satisfies the belly such that the single meal I eat a day is more likely to be only that single meal (of about 1,000 calories).
The problem is the coffee itself (I drink more than one) is a good percentage of that entire meal (due solely to the fat content of cream).
I'm in the same range but for shorter period of time where I periodically plateau such that I need to drop the calories down from where they are.
There is no one secret to losing weight other than to breathe more (the calories actually come out in the C02 in your breath, believe it or not) a lot (via metabolism & exercise, which is difficult at my age).
The other secret is to take in fewer calories than you breathe out. The battle isn't with the body (after a while you stop feeling hungry). The battle is with the brain.
The brain is always trying to make you eat more than you can to lose weight.
As we all know, coffee is very personal thing, so what works for any one of us might not work for others. That said, I've done at least a half dozen blind taste tests with family and friends who use other methods than mine and I've never lost. Therefore, considering ingredients, equipment and process, I believe that I have found a pretty good combination.
Here are the things I like about the Oxo device.
- I grind my coffee just prior to making the cold brew, weighing the beans for consistency. 10 oz, medium grind. The wide mouth of the Oxo brewing container and the Rainmaker lid makes it easy to layer the grounds/water,
1/3 at a time, for even saturation. After the grounds have bloomed, the wide mouth makes it easy to gently press the grounds in the bloom back down into the water. I tested stirring as mentioned in the Oxo instructions and I am not a fan. Opinions on stirring vary, I simply choose not to.
- The graduation marks on the beaker [Isn't that what started this whole discussion? ;-) ] make it easy to determine the correct amount of water for each 1/3 layer, but that's a nit. The beaker also allows for a nice gentle pour into the Rainmaker lid for even saturation, but that's also a nit. Any measuring cup could serve the same purpose.
The real purpose of the beaker is to allow for easy filtering/draining once the 18 hour brew session is complete. There is a lever on the base that releases the concentrate and lets it drain into the beaker through the built in filter. There also a safety latch that stops the draining if the beaker is not in the correct position, just like any drip coffee maker. Draining and filtering is a "set it and forget it" process. No cheese cloth, paper coffee filters, etc. Basically no work and no mess.
- Back to the brewing container: Once the concentrate has stopped draining, the wide mouth of the brewing container allows me to use a mason jar to press the grounds down to extract any remaining black gold that gravity didn't pull out of the grounds. I don't like to waste a single fraction of an ounce.
- The graduation marks on the beaker tell me exactly how much concentrate I have (which can vary a little based on the size of the grind and other factors) so I know exactly how much water is required for my desired dilution ratio.
- Clean up is easy. The grounds are easy to remove via the wide mouth of the brewing container. The filter at the bottom unscrews so that the container can be easily washed since it's open at the top and bottom. The pieces all nest together so that the unit is easy to store.
Here are the instructions from Oxo, which I alter just slightly. e.g. layering and no stirring.
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As I said, coffee - hot, iced, cold brewed, flavored, etc., - is a very personal thing. Whatever method works for any individual is fine with me. I've compared my method to many others and I like mine the best. Some may joke about the $50 I spent on the Oxo device, but considering the hundreds of gallons of great cold brew I've made, that $50 was well spent.
A tablespoon of coconut oil is 120 calories, or roughly four times that of a tablespoon of cream, depending on light cream, half and half, etc. Bulletproof coffee usually goes with a keto or other low carb diet where most of the calories come from fat. I prefer MCT oil for bulletproof coffee, about a tablespoon, and a tablespoon of Kerrigold grass fed butter. It sounds over the top but whipped up with a stick blender it's pretty good.
The $50 is no problem. I was just curious since most of the internet instructions amount to 'throw some coarse ground coffee and water into something and let it sit for a day or so.
I do have a French press which I seldom use that might work as an experiment. For my daily breakfast cup I use an Aeropress. Eject the grounds, rinse, and you're done.
With any reputable internet search engine one can easily find authoritative citations, e.g., mayo clinic web site, that describe and explain the myth of health benefits from coconut oil compared with other oils. Nutritional analysis of coconut oil shows that it has the same number of calories per unit volume as all other cooking oils, but that
12 out of the total of 14 grams of fat per tablespoon are saturated. Coconut oil has been shown in many well done studies to significantly raise "bad" (LDL) cholesterol levels in the blood, a known cause of atherosclerosis. Coconut oil is a very unhealthy choice and should be avoided in favor of oils with low or absent levels of saturated fats.
If you haven't done so already, search specifically for 'cold brew makers' as opposed to just 'cold brew', 'cold brew recipes', etc. There are a lot of options, in different price ranges. This site lists the Oxo as #2, with the heading of "Best for Perfectionists". Ok, I accept that title. ;-)
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Most sites rank the Oxo brewer at the top or very near the top of the brewers they've tested.
I had to laugh at this...
One site said that the Oxo brewer "brewed pretty near perfect cold brew" then went on to complain that it was a little too complicated for their liking. "This isn?t an assemble-after-two-glasses-of-wine apparatus."
Put the bottle down and set up the brewer. Sheesh.
That leaves me out... I drink a lot of coffee and even have been known to roast my own green beans from Sweet Maria's. The only line I draw is Ethiopian beans. If that crap was any fruitier it could pass as Earl Grey.
I mended my ways decades ago but I think cheap whiskey and Luckies did a number on my taste buds.
There wasn't anything medicinal about J.W.Dant. My f.i.l bought it by the case. I guess it was better than Zubrowka. Supposedly it was banned because it contained rat poison (coumarin) from the blade of bison grass it the bottle but it was available where I grew up. The stuff is rough.
Then there was the Cherry Heering episode. I made it to my inlaws during a blizzard where everything was closed. The old man and I searched high and low and a dusty bottle of that stuff was all we could find.
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