Today, Ricky joins us with 3 Tetra Paks of Bulletproof cold brew that he picked up at Whole Foods on the way to “the studio”. We sample 3 flavors and provide our [honest] thoughts. We also briefly talk about some recent coffee news and even some fake coffee news… because what would news be without fake news?
Highlights & Takeaways
Bulletproof is making RTD cold brew now – 3 flavors available: Original, Vanilla, Mocha
What we mentioned on during this show
Nestle bought Chameleon Cold Brew & Blue Bottle Coffee
Episode 84 Transcript
Brendan: Today on Drips and Draughts: Sampling, Bulletproof cold brew and some random coffee news.
[music starts]
Brendan: Welcome to the Drips and Draughts podcast, where we help you bring your craft to draught. From soda to beer and from coffee to kombucha, we’ll discuss making your favorite craft beverage in small or large batches and how to best serve it on draft.
Hey there, thanks for tuning in to another episode of the Drips and Draughts podcast. We’ve got a fairly quick show for you today, Ricky stopped by the office with some new bulletproof cold brew and we’ll basically just pouring these sample in it and checking out the three flavors: original, vanilla and Mocha. Will keep today’s intro short, get right into today’s episode.
[music]
Announcer: Thanks to our sponsor Cold Brew Avenue, the first stainless steel cold brew system that has reinvented how you cold brew. Easily brew up to 50 gallons using your 100% reusable stainless-steel filter system, visit coldbrewavenue.com to learn more.
[music]
Brendan: We’re recording, we’re live, you’re going to grab that?
Cary: I will be right back.
Brendan: All right, welcome to another episode of the Drips and Draughts podcast, as always, I’m Brendan Hanson. We got Cary here with us today, we’re joined by Ricky, once again, who brought in some bulletproof for us this sample so, looking forward to that.
Cary: Where did you find this Rick?
Ricky: Whole Foods, it’s across the street from my house so I frequent and I always check out the new cold brew products.
Cary: It’s convenient.
Brendan: How is the cold brew section at Whole Foods, is it getting bigger?
Ricky: It is getting bigger.
Brendan: Pretty large?
Ricky: It’s getting bigger, there’s like different stuff there now, there’s like stuff with almond milk in it now. There’s these new bulletproof ones that are pretty cool because they have like the brain octane in it.
Cary: Brain octane oil.
Brendan: Which is that? MCT oil he said?
Ricky: It’s basically MCT oil, they call it– they have branded it differently as XCT oil but I believe it’s the same thing as MCT oil.
Cary: Extracted from the most important part of the coconut to power your brain and body, if you need study, all day energy.
Ricky: So, it’s MCT oil.
Brendan: What’s the most important part of the coconut?
Cary: [mumble]
[laughter]
Brendan: The oil?
[laughter]
Cary: There’s only the brain octane oil. We’ve got three different ones. We’ve got original, Mocha and vanilla, what do you guys want to start with?
Brendan: Start with, the original?
Ricky: The original?
Brendan: Yes.
Cary: Check it up.
Brendan: Just a quick little disclaimer here, we are recording at our kitchen table, our office kitchen table, who’s got a– actually, picked up this little recorder, this mobile recorder, when I was going down to visit [unintelligible 00:03:21] coffee, a couple weeks ago, and planned on doing episode down there but Eric got a little wordy, pouring all this cold brew, telling us about it. Never got to record, so maybe here in the future, we’ll get back down there record an episode but-
Ricky: What do you mean he got wordy? drinking too much cold brew?
Brendan: Yes, they have 12 cold brews on top, four cold brew teas and eight coffees, he was just telling us all about it. It was awesome, I wish I would have just recorded the whole thing.
Ricky: Yes, this would have been good for that little thing you have, this new system.
Cary: You can tell it’s not-
[cross talk]
Cary: You can’t see through it at all, it looks like a mocha almost.
Brendan: It’s mocha-ke
Cary: Yes, you can see the oil running down the glass.
Ricky: It tastes just like when I do this style coffee at home with the grass-fed butter, tastes just like it.
Brendan: It does, tastes very similar.
Ricky: But It’s not as separated, they did something to blend it better to where it’s not– because sometimes when you do it at home the fat rises to the top and this is all mixed really well. It’s almost like emulsified.
Brendan: I wonder what their process is to make that happen, I wonder if it’s like super-heated or they’re checking the TDS [laughs]
Cary: I don’t think it’s going to work.
[laughter]
Cary: We just got some handy new TDS meters in. Taste this, but I have a feeling it’s too thick to taste.
Ricky: what does TDS stand for?
Brendan: Total dissolved solids.
Cary: I forgot to take the battery out.
Brendan: It’s a measurement that’s used to see how much you’ve extracted out of your coffee beans.
Cary: Yes, a lot of times we go to coffee shops, we’ll get like a cold brew and they will be serving a concentrate as ready to drink, not knowing how strong this stuff is that they’re serving. This is a great way for people to figure out exactly what they’re serving.
Ricky: You can test on this how much caffeine is in it, or is it–?
Cary: It’s not a caffeine, if you knew how much caffeine were in the beans you were using, you’d be able to calculate that probably.
Brendan: I don’t know on that.
Ricky: Is it measuring–?
Brendan: Like extraction. So, in this coffee it’s– it’s not going to give us a very good reading because there’s all these other-
Ricky: Ingredients in there. That’s going to be– so the higher the number on this thing, the-
Brendan: Stronger
Ricky: Stronger taste of coffee that you’re going to get.
Cary: Exactly, we did one not too long ago, it was 12 pounds of coffee and like 12 gallons of water so– no, it was only-
Brendan: Nine pounds.
Cary: -Nine pounds, it came out around 1.7 TDS, that’s a strong ready to drink. People start like doubling that ratio and it will get up into like-
Ricky: To me?
Cary: -Twos or threes to make it concentrate, you can really figure out what you’re doing and dilute it.
Ricky: That’s cool.
Brendan: This will work for any kind of– it’s not just for coffee, it’ll work for other things as well.
Cary: Coffee, tea. Yes, there’s a whole list of stuff but that’s the main use for us.
Brendan: Yes, yes.
Ricky: I guess from [unintelligible 00:06:40] from this coffee.
Brendan: It kind of clutch your mouth.
Ricky: Yes.
Cary: It definitely got some-
Brendan: It’s clutching the back of my tongue.
Ricky: What do you guys think of the taste?
Brendan: Tastes like a watered-down coffee, not like watered down, but it’s definitely diluted. There’s something else in there, it’s not a very strong coffee, I wouldn’t say.
Cary: It is cold brew too.
Ricky: One of the things the claims about this bulletproof coffee too, it’s not just the style of it or the grasp of butter in the MCT oil. It is also, supposedly, according to this guy, Dave Asprey and I don’t know if this is true, but he says some coffee has micro toxins in it and he says his coffee doesn’t have micro toxins in. What micro toxins are, I guess it’s like a mold or something that grows on beans depending on how they store it. Has something to do with the dry processing?
Brendan: Dry processing?
Ricky: Dry processing. Have you heard of that?
Brendan: There are like natural coffees that are dried with the skins on, so they take a lot more flavor from the fruit of the coffee, then they’ve got the non-natural process. They’re basically ripped off their flesh, then dried that way. Interesting.
Cary: Alright, pouring number two.
Brendan: Which is this one vanilla?
Cary: Mocha.
Brendan: Mocha?
Cary: Yes.
Ricky: No, this is vanilla. You’re pouring the vanilla.
Cary: Okay, good. I was looking at the calorie counts, so the first one the reading is 140 calories. This one’s going up to 190 because it’s got added sugar or-
Brendan: Is it-
Cary: -sugar alcohol not– total sugar is a zero and it’s got 12 grams of sugar alcohol. Did you look up what that was?
Ricky: Yes, sugar alcohols are commonly found in foods. I’ve heard of all this mannitol which they put in like– it’s like the– sugar alcohol. If you ever got a sugarless chocolate bar, usually they put mannitol on it and you really want to be careful with how– it tastes like real sugar but you got to be careful how much mannitol you eat because it’ll make your stomach hurt really bad.
Brendan: Yes?
[cross talk]
Cary: Is that thing for diabetics’ candies and stuff?
Ricky: Probably, yes. Sorbitol, mannitol, xylitol, isomalt and hydrogenated starch. It says that sugar alcohols come from plant products such as fruits and berries. Have you heard of that new sweetener that Starbucks is using? It’s not stevia, it’s monk fruit, have you heard of the sweetener? it’s actually very good.
Brendan: I haven’t.
Ricky: Yes, they make a monk fruit sweetener, it’s zero-
Brendan: Speaking about Starbucks-
Ricky: -Calories.
Brendan: Actually, we got a whole news article from The Onion.
Cary: Oh uh.
Brendan: Says “Starbucks is now offering a lukewarm coffee to help ease customer’s transition from iced coffee to hot coffee”.
[laughter]
Brendan: It’s the Starbucks tepid rest.
Ricky: Fake News?
Brendan: Fake news from The Onion, yes. You got to love The Onion.
Ricky: The Onion is actually more legit than some of these other news stories.
[laughter]
Ricky: There was some hearing today about fake news and Tim Cook-
Brendan: Apple?
Ricky: Yes, the guy from Apple was talking about how- it wasn’t today, but it was a couple days ago- about how there’s a big problem with fake news and they’re trying to create some way to stop it from happening which I don’t have no idea how you’d stop that from happening because the inner webs are so complicated.
Brendan: Yes, Facebook makes so much money, they could spend some money to create some sort of filter or make a department there that reviews things, just blacklist sites, “Sorry you can’t post, or share this link”.
Ricky: This one is pretty good, it has some flavor to it.
Brendan: A vanilla flavor in is like– it doesn’t seem natural. It tastes like the McDonald’s vanilla flavor. Have you ever had their coffee, the vanilla coffee from them? Their no sugar added vanilla coffee tastes very similar to that.
Ricky: You noticed that the smell of this too? It’s–
Cary: Shout-outs to McDonald’s coffee.
Ricky: It’s not as good as McDonald’s coffee.
[laughing]
Ricky: Sorry.
Cary: Oh, damn.
Brendan: We are talking about specialty coffee and comparing it to McDonald’s.
[laughing]
Cary: It’s pretty good that you know that now, Bren.
Brendan: So, going back to Starbucks Tepid Rest-
Cary: [laughs]
Brendan: What’s this say? “Our new Tepid Rest will be available for a limited time in select cities where temperatures have started to dip between 70 and 60 degrees Fahrenheit.” That’ll be great if they offered a lukewarm coffee, it’s kind of funky.
[laughing]
Ricky: It’s new market.
Brendan: How about this piece of news? “Nestlé Acquired Chameleon Cold Brew”. Hit bottom.
Ricky: They have that mocha flavored cold brew they sell–
Brendan: Chameleon?
Ricky: Umm-hmm.
Brendan: They are one of the first ones that was out on the shelves as a cold brew, a bottled cold brew and–
Cary: They were the first ones I remember seeing at Target and stuff before more and more came.
Ricky: Some of the cold brew concentrates that I’ve had from stores they don’t taste like cold brew. They taste almost like brewed coffee concentrated but not–
Brendan: Something’s off?
Ricky: Yes. It doesn’t taste like the stuff that comes out of your system here.
Brendan: A part of it could be the processing that they have to put it through in order to get shelves stability because if you got the refrigerated stuff, it won’t most likely taste like cold brew, and then there is their whole other avenue of getting something considered shelf-stable. We had a food scientist on last week, who was talking about retour processing which is basically like super-heating the contents of that package to 250 degrees, so she said, “Getting up that high, things are bound to change in the taste and flavor profile.”
Ricky: That must be it. Because you know that when you go into a nice coffee shop and you get a cold brew that they made there, it tastes so much better, most of the time. Some of them aren’t as good, but when you get it from the concentrate, from like Trader Joe’s or Whole Foods, it does not taste the same as something that you’ve made in one of these systems.
[background noise]
Brendan: Hey, pardon the interruption. UPS comes, right in the middle of recording, got to get the cold brew systems out to the people-
Cary: People.
Brendan: -and keep the people happy.
Cary: Got the mocha?
Brendan: Yes, I guess we can.
Cary: All right. 220 calories, stepping it up.
Brendan: We were just reading this Costco’s bottle. It says, “Bulletproof Coffee is tested and certified free of 27 toxins. Learn more.”
Ricky: That must be the mycotoxins.
Brendan: This one is definitely darker, ha?
Ricky: Taste the same as the vanilla to me.
Cary: It’s definitely more chocolaty.
Ricky: Is it?
Brendan: Or thicker.
Cary: Yes, it’s like a dark chocolate too–
Brendan: What is–
Cary: Mocha.
Brendan: Let me see that vanilla one. Is it actual vanilla, the reason, or is it that vanilla–
Cary: Cocoa powder is used in this. It does taste like that.
Ricky: Traces of fish gelatin.
Cary: “Natural flavor from Madagascar vanilla beans,” says in the mocha. Is what it says here, “Natural flavor from Madagascar vanilla beans.”
Brendan: Taste anything but natural to me.
[laughing]
Brendan: Moving on. Nestlé bought Chameleon Cold Brew and it says, “The acquisition comes just less than two months since Nestlé acquired Blue Bottle Coffee.” They are just going big in the cold brew.
Ricky: Blue Bottles are the little cans of coffee, right?
Brendan: I think so.
Ricky: I think they have the real small cans and they–
Cary: Concentrated?
Ricky: No, it’s not concentrated, they are strong, though.
Brendan: Both of those companies were based out of Texas, weren’t they?
Cary: Blue Bottle and Chameleon?
Brendan: Yes. I could be wrong.
Cary: I feel like Chameleon was.
Brendan: Interesting. “Chameleon Cold Brew products can currently be found in major retailers including Whole Foods, Target, Safeway, Albertson’s, and Bed, Bath and Beyond.”
Ricky: Bed, Bath and Beyond sells cold brew coffee?
Brendan: I guess.
Cary: It’s everywhere.
Brendan: Everybody’s getting in on that. Get this one, I just saw this on Daily Coffee News a couple of weeks ago, It said, let’s see, “Just yesterday we erroneously reported that the lot of coffee purchased at $601 per pound at the Best of Panama auction was the most expensive per-pound purchase of green coffee ever at auction.” Goes on to say that that was wrong, they’ve got reports of a top-earning lot at an auction in September, jaw-dropping, $5,001.50 per kilogram.
Cary: Daring.
Brendan: $2,273 per pound of coffee.
Ricky: I don’t know what that means.
Brendan: Want to try that?
[laughing]
Cary: A lot.
Brendan: That’s a lot.
Cary: Wonder what that taste like?
Brendan: I don’t know. It’s all these geisha varietals of coffee. It’s the one that Klatch is doing. And then here is another story about New Belgium. They brewed the beer with some of that Panama Geisha from Hacienda La Esmeralda.
Ricky: Bet that one it’s good.
Cary: We saw that article about the Sam Adams beer.
Brendan: The Utopias?
Cary: I was over at Costco yesterday. They have it.
Brendan: Really?
Cary: Yes. Check this out.
Brendan: What are they charging for that thing?
Cary: I took a picture I thought. All right, here it is, $169.99.
Brendan: For a single bottle?
Cary: Yes. Look at this thing. It comes in this gold chalice–
[laughing]
Cary: But isn’t it like 25% or something like that.
Brendan: Bigger gift. It’s insane.
Cary: Yes, it seats in the last case there. $169.99.
Ricky: Just ready for the holidays?
Cary: Yes.
Brendan: I guess.
Cary: This is 28% strong ale. Very limited release. Aged up to 24 years.
Ricky: Oh my god.
Cary: No, aged up to– Is that what it says? Aged up to 24 years.
Brendan: Wonder if they’ve aged it for you, or they are saying you can store it that much longer.
Cary: I don’t know. I’m just reading the bullet points on the Costco price tag–
Brendan: Threw a little sale, [unintelligible 00:18:00]?
[laughing]
Cary: Yes. Crazy.
Brendan: Some of these beers are getting insane.
Ricky: Beer is getting, I mean the craft beers, they’re like wine now. It’s like the prices are going up so much.
Brendan: Yes, especially for barrel-aged and aged stuff like that. I just got an e-mail this morning about the brewery down in Fullerton. He had some of their beers, right? They have–
Ricky: What’s the name of the Brewery?
Brendan: It’s called The Bruery. B-R-U-E-R-Y. They have members-only barrel-aged club. He paid, I don’t know how much money, but you get limited access‚ first dibs on new beers. Lot of places starting to do things like that. Pretty crazy. Actually, I just got e-mail from Alex, from the guy who’s in Australia, who’s been on the Podcast. He’s–
Ricky: The jiu-jitsu guy?
Brendan: I don’t know if he does jiu-jitsu.
Cary: [laughs]
Brendan: It’s not that one, but–
Ricky: There is an Australian jiu-jitsu guy.
Brendan: Yes, there is one. Are you following him?
Ricky: No way. It was either one– did he do one of the reviews on that video we did? The-
Brendan: Coffee?
Ricky: -video. Was that him?
Cary: That was Colin from Dubai, I think.
Ricky: No? Okay.
Brendan: I think he might do–
Ricky: He looks like he–
Brendan: Yeah, he might do some jiu-jitsu.
[laughing]
Ricky: Sometimes you can tell by the neck or the jaw structure.
[laughing]
Brendan: This guy hooked up with the brewery down there, and they’re making like a cold brew golden ale.
Cary: Nice.
Brendan: We are going to have to have him back on the show to talk about that.
Cary: That’s cool. We still got to add some cold brew to our pumpkin ale and see what that does. We can just stir it in one of the Growler Werks’ things even. Keep it from there–
Brendan: It’s true. Those things are sweet.
Ricky: That pumpkin ale turned out good.
Cary: It did.
Ricky: Cary smuggled, one of your, one of those things that you have now, the little–
Cary: The growlers?
Ricky: The little growlers you have. Those things are so awesome.
Brendan: Take it for himself?
Ricky: He smuggled it onto the golf course.
Brendan: [laughs]
Cary: That was so good. Kept the beer cooled all day–
Brendan: Nice. Just draft beer–
Cary: Just draft beer on the course–
Ricky: They don’t allow beer on this particular golf course because they want you to buy the beer there and Cary, he takes my jacket out on the nightfall, brings it in-
[laughing]
Ricky: -Beer for everybody. It was awesome.
Cary: They didn’t have a good beer there.
Brendan: Nice.
Cary: You got to do what you got to do.
Brendan: Anything that bit those Kansas C- and B-.
[laughing]
Brendan: What else do we got? Coming up, I think we’re going to have somebody from Friedrichs Coffee on talking about the history of cold brew, which should be fun, educate us a bit.
Cary: They do those classes at Coffee Fest and stuff.
Brendan: Yes, they do the training at Coffee Fest, fun to have them on. And then, getting the cold brew chick on from San Diego.
Ricky: That’s her name, cold brew chick?
Brendan: Yes. That’s what she goes by. Just as like all sorts of reviews, just samples cold brews. Hopefully, get her on soon. Yes, we got some shows lined up but we’re kind of lacking right now in terms of–
Ricky: You haven’t to recruit the intern for–
Brendan: The intern is back.
Ricky: Any ideas?
Brendan: Yes. The intern is back. We gladly put you on the show anytime you come out. All right guys.
Cary: Thanks for bringing these, Rick. How much are these?
Ricky: They’re 4.99 at Whole Foods.
Brendan: For a three pack or each?
Ricky: Each. They’re pricey.
Brendan: I think they are.
Cary: But it’s almost like a breakfast replacement.
Ricky: Yes. It’s like a meal replacement. I started the keto diet again. By the way, we did that podcast a while ago when I started it and I’ve been off and on with it. I’m telling you, eating that way has been like life-changing for me. My blood pressure is down. My blood pressure used to always be high and now my blood pressures is down from- it’s counterintuitive because I’m eating more fatty foods but no sugar or carbohydrates.
Brendan: Very interesting. I have to get a printout of that form you. I need to do a little cleanse, change something up.
Ricky: I do it, a couple in two or three weeks chunks and then I will go off of it and just go off.
Cary: Just have a bender.
Ricky: No, but I don’t. Sometimes I will have a bender. You have to have those bender’s weekend, every once in a while.
[laughter]
Brendan: I think that’s going to do it.
Cary: Yes. Check out the new TDS meters and bulletproof coffee.
Brendan: Yes. Call us if you want to be on the show. We need some guests through the holidays, make sure you reach out to us. All right that’s it.
[Music]
Announcer: If you’re looking to learn more about cold brew or draught coffee, make sure you check out “Keg Outlet’s Ultimate guide to cold brew coffee and serving coffee on draft”. But don’t just take my word for it. Here’s Daniel Browning from the Browning Beverage Company in Marfa Texas.
Daniel: I got on the internet and started looking around and I found Keg Outlet’s Ultimate guide to cold brew coffee, read it a couple more times than I’ve read anything in my life, that was pretty much all the research I needed.
Announcer: If you’re looking to start your journey with cold brew or draft coffee, check out The ultimate guide to cold brew coffee and serving coffee on draft, a free 34 page ebook offered at kegoutlet.com. You can get there through the drips and draughts website by going to dripsanddraughts.com/ultimateguide.
[Music]
Brendan: All right, thanks for listening today and thanks to Cary and Ricky for joining me at the break room table. If you’ve been a listener of the show for a long time and you get a moment, let us know what you think about the audio from this episode versus all of our other shows. As we stated while we’re recording, we were recording using a mobile recording system, just curious how you all think that sounds. As we mentioned during the show, we’ve got a new TDS meter that we’re using and selling. We get a few questions, one being what is TDS? but two is, where can I get a TDS meter that doesn’t cost near a $1,000?
So we started looking and we found one that we liked. It’s pretty simple, pretty easy to use and we’ve added that to our site. If you’re looking to check that out, you can go to dripsanddraughts.com/TDS. All right guys, I think that’s about going to do it for this episode. We’re looking forward to a couple future episodes where we talk about the history of cold brew, looking to talk with the cold brew chick from San Diego, here, shortly. I’ve got a couple other episodes lined up as well so stay tuned for those. That’s going to do it for today. One final thanks to Cary and Ricky. I’m Brendan Hanson and I’ll see you again next Friday on the Drips and Draughts podcast.
[Music]
Brendan: Are you looking to learn more about cold brew and draft coffee? Join us in the cold brew avenue private community, to connect with, and learn from other cold brew and draft coffee professionals. Plus, get access to exclusive content such as ebooks, “how to” videos, — and more. You can learn more and apply for membership at forum, thecoldbrewavenue.com. Thanks to Keg Outlet for sponsoring this podcast, thank you to everyone who’s contributed questions and to you for tuning in, thank you for listening. That does it for this week, we’ll looking forward to seeing you again for the next episode of Drips and Draughts.
Mentioned in this Show
Nestle bought Chameleon Cold Brew
