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From banana coffee to dalgona coffee, you’ve seen a lot of hot and iced coffee trends come and go over the years. But Bulletproof Coffee — a style that blends unsalted butter and MCT oil with coffee beans — hasn’t seemed to have gone anywhere. Created by David Asprey in 2009 and popularized as a part of the keto diet in the years following, Bulletproof Coffee, also known as butter coffee, is a byproduct of the Silicon Valley diet culture that experts have long debated.
Still, that hasn’t kept any of Bulletproof’s branded coffee products off the shelves — although some of them are better off there. No matter where you stand on the diet trend, Bulletproof’s Cold Brew Latte is one to keep out of your cart. Look taste testers tried and ranked 23 store-bought iced coffees from worst to best and Bulletproof’s Cold Brew Latte came in 22nd (and the product in last place isn’t even technically an iced coffee). In fact, it was so bitter and greasy that our taste testers struggled to drink it.
They actually compared it to the experience of drinking jet fuel, which might sound good to California’s biohacking tech bros, but, for the rest of you, not so much. To make it worse, Bulletproof’s Cold Brew Latte goes beyond being an acquired taste. Reviewers on both Amazon and Influenster claim that it actually gets worse as you sip it, requiring lots of ice and extra milk just to stomach it. While Bulletproof’s Cold Brew Latte shouldn’t be your first — or even your last — choice, there are better alternatives for keto-friendly iced coffee.
The best keto-friendly iced coffees
Bulletproof’s Cold Brew Latte has a lot going on. But instead of diving into what this keto-friendly coffee gets wrong, let’s look at what you can get right. For a keto-friendly iced coffee at home, look no further than the store-bought iced coffee we ranked the best: Stumptown Coffee Roasters’ Original Cold Brew. Pour it over ice and add a splash of heavy cream or half-and-half, and you have a keto-friendly coffee that will give your body all the fuel it needs — without tasting like it. Obviously, if you want all of the benefits of the MCT oil and collagen found in Bulletproof’s, you can get your own to add to it. Just know that these ingredients will likely alter the texture and taste of your coffee.
If you don’t have time to make your own keto coffee at home, there are also 38 keto-friendly drinks on the Starbucks menu — one standout being the Iced Shaken Espresso. Ordered with heavy cream or half-and-half instead of regular milk and with a sugar-free sweetener instead of the Classic syrup, you get a keto-friendly alternative to the original. In fact, if you want something high-fat and sugar-free, you can order any classic drink — be it an iced americano, coffee, or cold brew — and ask for heavy cream or half-and-half instead of regular milk as the creamer. Most coffee shops have sugar-free sweeteners available, too.