Paleo diet is becoming increasingly popular these days, so I am sure you know somebody who follows it or at least you heard of it. What about paleo coffee? Neither had I up until recently. I have a friend Claudio, who is a real evangelist of paleo. One morning he shared a photo of coffee beans and egg yolks with the caption “Primal Egg Yolk Coffee”, which instantly caught my eye and got me intrigued. Claudio’s friend, a barista, was experimenting with preparing creative coffee drinks before taking part in the national coffee championship. An hour later, I was scooting towards the coffee shop where the experiments were taking place, dying to try this new drink.
Even though black coffee is considered paleo, adding milk is a no-no in terms of this ideology. There are creative ways of substituting milk with paleo ingredients, which would make coffee look and taste milky, but still be paleo, and that was what I witnessed. The process of preparation looked pretty uncomplicated. All you need to prepare this coffee is a shot of espresso, some almond milk, egg yolk, a bit of sweetener (such as stevia), and a dash of cinnamon. Pasteurizing eggs in hot water before usage is a must to kill the bacteria. All the ingredients apart from espresso must be blended until smooth and frothy, poured over the espresso shot, et voilà! The coffee is made and ready to be enjoyed.
The taste of the coffee was much smoother and less pretentious than I thought it would be. Blended egg yolk made the texture of the coffee richer, but it didn’t add any extra unwanted flavor. Cinnamon was slightly dominating, making me think that gingerbread spice mix could also work in this coffee. The froth could have been thicker, and I can imagine a bit more of it, but I suppose it is a matter of experimenting until you get it right. My idea for further experiments with this drink was to serve it as iced coffee rather than having it lukewarm due to the larger amount of its ingredients not being heated.
I researched coffee with egg afterward and discovered that it is a popular drink in Vietnam. Brewed using a special Vietnamese coffee maker phin over a glass with condensed milk and then topped up with whipped egg yolk, this coffee is mostly consumed in Northern Vietnam. I guess I have the new destination on my bucket list!
I’m definitely trying this out! Love to see how far people take their coffee experimentation and this looks like something I need to have at least once in my life!