Winter Egg Coffee – Sounds Weird, Tastes Great

Ever since watching Rocky Balboa down half a dozen raw eggs seconds after waking, I knew that those little ovoid beauties were a power food fit for champions.

I’m not advocating that Rocky should be seen as a role model for all that is healthy, but for my prepubescent mind, he was in the realms of an Olympian god.

Fast forward to my mid-forties and Rocky still is a major influence to how I move and train.

So out came the plastic beaker and in went the eggs.

‘Down it, Glenny’ went my inner voice.

‘Forget it!’ said my gag reflex.

I was unable to eat eggs in their entirety. The yokes were fine. The whites were not. Boiled, fried, poached, even scrambled or omeletted were off the cards. Quiche to me was the devil’s food.

And so for 30 years I never touched an egg white in any form.

But I knew I was missing out on a super food. If I could only crack (I know, clever right?) my inability to consume the whole egg, I would be able to open up a portal to a whole other gastronomical universe.

And so I set forth on the adventurous path of introducing small amounts of egg white into my diet to create an immunity to my distaste.

Like Mithridates VI ingesting tiny portions of poison to make himself unpoisonable, I’d add a little bit of scrambled egg here, a mouthful of Spanish omelette there. But not quiche. NEVER QUICHE.

And Lo! I not only began to tolerate egg white, I grew to love it.

With this newly expanded, egg-shaped view of the world, I set forth on a voyage of albumenic discovery.

We’ve come a long way from the days when eggs were demonised as bad for us. They are a veritable powerhouse of nutritional density.

Even the like of WeightWatchers, who regulary vilify foods, have seen the egg-hued light and given the humble egg, yokes and all, a ‘ZeroPoint’ food. Basically meaning ‘have at it’, they are great, so fill your face.

A good free-range (preferably organic, which is even more free range) egg delivers us an amazing assortment of micronutrients: vitamin D, vitamin K2, vitamin A, vitamin E, choline, beta-carotene, omega-3 fats, and all the essential trace minerals needed for optimal health.

The past fears of cholesterol from eggs has proven unfounded for the general population, with studies showing that dietary cholesterol from eggs increased HDL (‘good’ blood cholesterol) in overweight men on a low-carb diet, and improved markers for metabolic syndrome.

Another study showed that egg consumption improved lipid and blood glucose profiles in type 2 diabetics, in conjunction with a high-protein diet.

It truly is the age of the egg. And they are perfect for the modern Nutrivore as we discussed a few weeks ago.

We’ve covered some of our favourite egg dishes, such as shakshuka and primal pancakes in previous articles, but my ever blossoming love affair with egg got me thinking:

I love coffee in the morning, and I love eggs too. Is there some way to combine the super powers of both to become some kind of eggy coffee super soldier?

The answer was Egg Coffee.

It turns out that my twisted mind had invented nothing new at all. Egg coffee has been drunk in places such as Scandinavia and Vietnam, to name a couple of places, for quite some time.

The classic Vietnamese egg coffee,  Cà phê trứng, usually combines egg with condensed milk. And while it is delicious, the condensed milk available nowadays is very sweet and far from nutritious.

So I decided to make the egg coffee far simpler and forego the condensed milk altogether.

This is a wonderfully creamy and decadent coffee, perfect for a cold chilly start when you need a bit of extra energy and nutrition but lack the time to cook.

The creaminess come from the emulsifiable nature of the eggs. It’s a great alternative to the Bullet Proof coffee which combines butter and coconut oil or MCT oil.

Again, Bullet Proof coffee is delicious, but it is easy to overconsume and is very high in calories. Drinking your calories is a very good way to get into a caloric excess, fine if you are bulking, not if you are trying to lower body fat.

The Egg coffee is about three times less calories than Bullet Proof coffee.

I’ve added some classic winter spices to get with the festive feel, but you can omit them as you please. Equally, I do not add any sweetener, but feel free to adjust to taste.

Let’s brew.

For those that care, this drink comes in at about 140 calories, 12g of protein, 8g of fat and 2.5g of carbs.

The concern that most people have is the consumption of uncooked egg. There is always a risk of things like salmonella when using uncooked eggs. In theory the use of near boiling water will help to minimise this.

This is why I like to use an Aeropress to make my coffee for this. You only leave the coffee brewing for 90 seconds and I would use boiling water straight out the kettle rather than letting it cool a while like the hipsters say.

Are you any more at risk than eating an over easy egg? I really don’t know. Nowadays, many egg producers vaccinate against salmonella and you can buy pasteurised eggs if you are concerned.

In 2017 the Food Standards Agency updated its advice on egg consumption and no longer advises against the consumption of raw eggs, even by vulnerable groups, provided that they are produced under the British Lion scheme.

As always we advocate that you take full agency over your own health, so do your own research and make your own decision.

So, to all you coffee lovers out there, I double dare you to give it a try and let us know how you get on. It really is eggcellent.

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