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Butter coffee

Coffee blended with butter and MCT oil. It makes a rich drink; the health claims around it are not supported.

Butter coffee blends strong black coffee with unsalted butter and MCT oil until emulsified and frothy.

What it actually is

A high-fat drink. Blending is essential — stirred butter simply floats as a slick. Emulsified, it produces a rich, creamy, latte-like texture with no dairy sugars.

The claimed origins

Often attributed to Tibetan butter tea, which is a genuine tradition using yak butter and salt at altitude, and is a different drink for a different reason.

The health claims

The marketing around butter coffee has claimed improved focus, sustained energy and weight loss. Those claims are not supported by good evidence, and this site is not the place for nutrition advice.

What is factual: it is calorically dense, roughly 200 to 450 calories depending on quantities, which is a meal rather than a drink.

The taste

Genuinely pleasant if you like rich things — creamy, smooth, with the coffee’s bitterness cut by fat much as milk cuts it.

Making one

250 ml strong coffee, 10 to 15 g unsalted butter, a teaspoon of MCT oil, blended for thirty seconds.

What you need to make it

The equipment this actually requires — not a shopping list, the shortest route to doing it properly.

  • The reference pour-over Manual brewers

    Hario V60 02 Ceramic

    60° cone · spiral ribs · 1–4 cups

    The most transparent cup you can brew for twenty euros, and the least forgiving. Ceramic holds heat where plastic does not — and the open bottom means your pour, not the dripper, decides the coffee.

    Best for: Someone who wants to taste what a single-origin coffee is actually doing.

    8.2/10

    ≈ $25 / £20 / 22 €

  • Best filter grinder Grinders

    Fellow Ode Brew Grinder Gen 2

    64 mm flat burr · filter only · single dose

    64 mm flat burrs, near-zero retention and a footprint the size of a mug, built for filter and honest about not doing espresso. For pour-over it is the clearest grind you can buy at this price.

    Best for: V60, Chemex, AeroPress and batch brewing, where clarity is the whole point.

    8.7/10

    ≈ $345 / £275 / 300 €

  • Best pour control Kettles

    Fellow Stagg EKG Pro

    0.9 L · ±1 °C hold · counterbalanced gooseneck

    The best-pouring kettle sold, and the hold function matters more than the thermometer. Expensive for boiling water — but if you brew pour-over daily, it is the accessory that most improves the cup.

    Best for: Daily pour-over, where flow rate is the variable you are trying to control.

    8.6/10

    ≈ $195 / £165 / 180 €