Chef Seamus Mullen: My Go-To Coffee Concoctions

If you spend a little time on my Instagram (or in my kitchen!) my love for coffee will be abundantly clear. Yes, yes, yes, I know, caffeine is addictive and coffee, well it’s not exactly a healthy food. But I’m a firm believer in the 80/20 rule so while I do drink a cup or three of coffee a day, I’m not downing a bottle of bourbon. So from that perspective, it’s a health tool!

I think I inherited my love for coffee from my pops, who inherited his love for coffee from his idol, Johann Sebastian Bach who allegedly drank 36 cups of coffee a day while composing the Goldberg Variations. Apparently J.S. Bach, like most Baroque coffee fiends, loved his ornate apparatii for preparing the perfect cup. The ritual around the making of the coffee is one of the things I love most about my morning cup. Just like my dad and Bach, I’m very methodical about how I make my coffee and recently I’ve been using my Vitamix blender to make a whole host of weird and amazing coffee variations. Butter in coffee? Well, hell yes! While this trend has been hitting the wellness beat since Dave Asprey introduced the world to his “Bulletproof Coffee” recipe, blending together MCT oil, coffee and grassfed butter, the origins of this recipe go way back. In fact the first time I had it was when I was 16 on a backpacking trip in Wyoming. One of our guides was from Nepal and he made us instant coffee (and then black tea when we ran out of coffee, BLECH!) with unsalted butter stirred in. Traditionally made with yak butter, it’s a recipe for the original energy drink that’s been consumed in the Tibetan Plateau for ages.

As we’re starting to recognize some of the health benefits of coffee and caffeine, there has been a wave of tinkering with conventional coffee to make super coffees. Here’s a few that I love. I’ve used the new Aer™ disc container for all of these recipes to create a fluffy, aerated texture, but they can just as easily be made in the regular Vitamix container.

Now mind you, there is no added sugar here, so if you like your coffee sweet...well.... I suppose you can add a little raw honey or maple syrup, but you didn’t hear that from me!

Mushroom coffee with whipped coconut milk and collagen

We might as well get the weird one out of the way first! I’m actually a big fan of the Four Sigmatic mushroom coffees, they are blends of adaptogenic mushrooms with all sorts of health benefits and organic, instant coffee. I’ve taken this one and amped it up a bit with some coconut milk for texture and additional healthy fat and some grass-fed collagen which is great for healthy hair, nails and skin and terrific for keeping the gut lining healthy.

Ingredients

• 1 packet of Four Sigmatic mushroom coffee
• 8 oz warm water
• 1 Tbsp grassfed collagen
• ¼ cup unsweetened coconut milk

Combine the hot water with the mushroom coffee and collagen and stir.

Pour the coconut milk into the Aer disc container, turn on the blender, and increase the speed to 8. With the blender running, drizzle in the coffee mixture, run for an additional 30 seconds, and serve right away.

Drip coffee whipped with coconut oil and vanilla

This is a nice non-dairy take on the fatty-coffee. The coconut oil lends texture and flavor to the coffee, giving it a nice frothy, nutty finish. I love this for folks that are playing around with a Keto diet. The vanilla is a natural antioxidant that adds a sweet note to the coffee.

Ingredients

• 8 oz drip coffee
• 1 Tbsp coconut oil
• 1 tsp vanilla powder

Add the coffee to the Vitamix Aer disc container. Add in the coconut oil and vanilla powder and increase the speed to 8 and run for 30 seconds. Serve immediately.

Cold brew coffee with maca and cacao

I’m okay with any excuse I can find to eat chocolate! And it just so happens that chocolate is natural antioxidant. Maca root is thought to also be an antioxidant, as well as having a variety of other health benefits.

Ingredients

• 8 oz cold brew coffee
• 2 Tbsp unsweetened cacao powder
• 1 tsp maca powder

Combine all ingredients in the Aer disc container, increase the speed to 8 and aerate for 30 seconds. Serve immediately.

Drip coffee with butter and macadamia milk

Fatty McFatterson....that’s what this coffee is, the original fat coffee, with grassfed butter and “milk” made from macadamia nuts. In the hiearchy of nuts, I really do think that the macadamia is king! Full of healthy fat, protein and unparalleled flavor. The addition of the macadamia milk makes this super creamy. If you’re highly motivated (and independently wealthy!) you can use the Vitamix conventional container to make your own macadamia milk by pureeing the nuts with water and then straining through a cheese cloth. Or you can just by a carton at the supermarket, I won’t judge!

Ingredients

• 8 oz drip coffee
• 2 Tbsp unsalted, grassfed butter
• ¼ cup macadamia milk

Combine macadamia milk and butter in the Aer disc container. Process until incorporated, then add the coffee, increase the speed to 8, and run for 30 seconds.