Althouse: Butter in coffee?

May 5, 2014

Butter in coffee?

Is that a thing? I read it was a thing. I mentioned it to Meade, and then next day I'm seeing...

Is that weird? Or is that insignificantly different from the flatly conventional practice of putting cream in your coffee?

39 comments:

KLDAVIS said...: Cream + Sugar is only a bit of butter short of being caramel. And, who doesn't like a caramel macchiato?

If it's good coffee, I prefer it black, maybe with a few grains of fleur de sel. Salt brings out all sorts of interesting flavors by pushing bitterness to the background.

There seems to be some new health fad that involves coconut oil in coffee. I read about 2 paragraphs before realizing it was essentially an Amway scam.; 5/5/14, 9:59 AM
Anonymous said...: Marlon Brando, as with all things butter, was there first: 'Last Cafe in Paris.'; 5/5/14, 9:59 AM
MadisonMan said...: Bad link.

I looked around online. Just some odd and pretentious fad. I'll stick with cream. Because what is butter? Cream that's been modified by agitation and salt.

And those yahoos that are adding MCT via coconut and palm oil? No thanks.

Every day that I get coffee at Union South, I'm struck by the time people waste waiting for their lattes, cappucionos, frios, whatever. I'm in and out with my decaf, or iced decaf, as they wait wait wait.; 5/5/14, 10:00 AM
Meade said...: I also added to the grind 3 small dried chili peppers. Haaachachachachaaaa!; 5/5/14, 10:00 AM
Mary Beth said...: Bulletproof coffee.; 5/5/14, 10:01 AM
Chance said...: I saw butter put in coffee on an episode of Bizarre Foods some place in Africa, where it is apparently customary. The host, Andrew Zimmern, seemed to find the combination unappetizing.; 5/5/14, 10:03 AM
Bob Boyd said...: A loud, delusional minority is driving this butter in coffee thing.; 5/5/14, 10:08 AM
bandmeeting said...: Google "bulletproof coffee". I just finished one. Look out world.; 5/5/14, 10:10 AM
Quaestor said...: Look, it's very simple: Cream goes in the coffee. Butter goes on the toast. Sugar goes on the grapefruit.

If you doubt the wisdom of the simple approach, consider buttered grapefruit.; 5/5/14, 10:13 AM
Xmas said...: Unsalted butter, I'm hoping. Otherwise...blech.; 5/5/14, 10:14 AM
Tank said...: Sounds weird, but if you think about it, not.

My kids were talking about bacon milkshakes yesterday. Swore they were good. I like bacon as much (more) than the next guy, but ...?; 5/5/14, 10:14 AM
Krumhorn said...: I would be hard pressed to come up with any recipe that would not be materially improved by the addition of (more) butter.

- Krumhorn; 5/5/14, 10:32 AM
Will said...: I put coconut oil in my coffee. Good stuff.; 5/5/14, 10:36 AM
William said...: It's not just telephones. Coffee has truly and dramatically improved over the course of my lifetime. Maxwell House brewed in a metal percolator. Sometimes even freeze dried instant coffee. How many wasted years of coffee consumption gone forever.....Is it possible that coffee has gotten as good as it's going to get?; 5/5/14, 10:43 AM
Salamandyr said...: As mentioned above, see "bulletproof coffee". It's a low carb diet thing.

I've found it's quite tasty, but these days I just drink my coffee black.; 5/5/14, 11:02 AM
Ann Althouse said...: Sorry about the bad link.

Between the new SCt case and Crack on the radio, I hadn't looked back to this.

Anyway, seems to me it's all about color. Cream seems nice because it gets us to the classic color, but if you want to keep the coffee looking black, butter will give you the dairy fat without changing the color.

But doesn't it look greasy??; 5/5/14, 11:07 AM
Quaestor said...: De gustibus non est disputandum. Ergo if you like butter in your java, go for it.

However there is a practical objection to butter. Cream forms an emulsion when introduced into coffee, or water for that matter. Butter is insoluble in water at STP. This means that creamed coffee will taste consistent from first sip to last, whereas butter will generally avoid your mouth until the coffee is mostly drunk, when you'll get a big greasy slug of molten LandOLakes in the final gulp.; 5/5/14, 11:12 AM
Fred Drinkwater said...: Quaestor 10:13
But, but.... that's so.. Conservative! And Boring!
Where's your sense of fun and play?
Let a thousand flowers bloom!
Me? I'm going to try grapefruit in my coffee. Yeah, that's the ticket. Nobody will ever call ME stodgy.; 5/5/14, 11:20 AM
kjbe said...: "Every day that I get coffee at Union South, I'm struck by the time people waste waiting for their lattes, cappucionos, frios, whatever. I'm in and out with my decaf, or iced decaf, as they wait wait wait."

And they may wonder why you waste your time with decaf.; 5/5/14, 11:25 AM
traditionalguy said...: Weird. Coffee ice cream with chocolate maybe. That sounds like a Ben and Jerry's flavor. The heavy cream is the key to real ice cream.

Then you boil the ice cream.; 5/5/14, 11:33 AM
Biff said...: I haven't tried butter in coffee, but I'd guess the "mouthfeel" might be interesting. I'd be willing to try it once.

A while ago, I reached for the wrong bottle and accidentally put a dash of pepper in my coffee, rather than a sprinkling of cinnamon. It actually wasn't too bad, but I haven't had the inclination to do it again.; 5/5/14, 11:42 AM
Quaestor said...: Butter is soluble in alcohol, which is why a hot buttered rum isn't a disgusting slug of grease.; 5/5/14, 11:58 AM
chickelit said...: Butter's better because the butterfat beads above the blend. The creamy taste is closer to where you sip.

I just tried it -- doesn't it make your lips feel greasy?; 5/5/14, 12:03 PM
Jeff Boulier said...: South Asians, at least of the Vietnamese and Cambodian variety, roast their coffee beans in butter.; 5/5/14, 12:10 PM
buck said...: I've always enjoyed dipping buttered toast into my coffee. Who knew I was on to something big?; 5/5/14, 12:22 PM
Quaestor said...: Let a thousand flowers bloom! And here I am allergic to at least 500 of them.

And where's my sense of fun and play, you ask? I tend to agree with Vlad Tepes regarding this fun and play business.; 5/5/14, 12:36 PM
Ann Althouse said...: Maybe the greasy lips effect is good for you guys who are too butch to use Chapstick.; 5/5/14, 1:40 PM
Anonymous said...: Read a spiritual travel memoir in which the author ends up in Ladakh drinking some foul-tasting tea with yak butter.

Just googled... It is a real thing called po cha / butter tea / or Tibetan tea.; 5/5/14, 1:54 PM
ken in tx said...: If you put real cream in your coffee, you can see the butterfat floating on the top. It is greasy, but good.

BTW, Greasy is pronounced greazy down here. I read that it is one of the regional determinants.; 5/5/14, 2:05 PM
TMink said...: That Chemex will make wonderful coffee! The addition of butter, not so much.

Trey; 5/5/14, 2:54 PM
Nichevo said...: Do greasy lips increase your desire to perform sexual services, professor? That would be good to know. Otherwise I think men can gauge their own need for carmex, blistex, etc. Chapstick? Where you from, Delaware?; 5/5/14, 3:26 PM
Anonymous said...: The Tibetans use yak butter in their tea. That has nothing to do with this thread but I though I'd toss it in for the helluvit.; 5/5/14, 4:45 PM
Anonymous said...: I see you are using your Chemex coffee maker. I am the only coffee drinker in my house, with an on-again-off-again pattern depending on how my intestines take the acid. I bought a Melitta plastic drip cone at the grocery store for about $3. It takes up little space and I like watching my coffee grounds foam up in the filter. And I have inadvertently become a member of the pourover coffee cult.; 5/5/14, 4:59 PM
Freeman Hunt said...: I like it after it gets a whip with the immersion blender.; 5/5/14, 5:10 PM
Ann Althouse said...: "I see you are using your Chemex coffee maker. I am the only coffee drinker in my house, with an on-again-off-again pattern depending on how my intestines take the acid. I bought a Melitta plastic drip cone at the grocery store for about $3. It takes up little space and I like watching my coffee grounds foam up in the filter. And I have inadvertently become a member of the pourover coffee cult."

Meade uses it. I prefer the Aero Press. As for pour over… I associate it with the 1970s and Melitta plastic cones too, and I think I have 2 of them (in 2 sizes) somewhere in the cupboard… somewhere near the 2 Bialetti espresso makers (in 2 sizes).; 5/5/14, 7:42 PM
Rusty said...: In the shop you eventually wind up with machine oil in the coffee.
Which, I suppose, is better than getting water soluble in the coffee.(inside joke); 5/6/14, 5:59 AM
Unknown said...: The use of the word "butch" confuses me, chapstick is feminine in your book? I've always thought of it as a statement of "I'm an outdoorsy, fight the elements kind of guy."

Does one need to have to live with chapped, bleeding lips to avoid being sissy?; 5/6/14, 8:20 AM
Jeff Hall said...: I had tea with butter and mint once in an Afghan restaurant. It was okay.

(The tea was very strong black tea, and it had been steeped with mint leaves in something like a samovar. The butter was about two or three tablespoons, in a small (6 ounce?) cup, and was heated but not boiling when it was added to the tea in the cup and stirred.); 5/6/14, 10:54 AM
Anonymous said...: Thanks for the response, Ann. I was around in the 70's and I associate the wood-and-leather Chemex with that time but only from pictures I suppose. I don't remember any one I knew actually using one or making any big deal about how coffee was made. We were much more interested in making beer.

As an ignorer of coffee culture I was not aware of the Melitta when I found it in the store a few years ago. It just looked like I could do what a Mr. Coffee does without dedicating counter space. And now my store has dropped the Melitta cones. Keurig cups take up more and more space in the coffee aisle.; 5/6/14, 2:11 PM