What do people in Silicon Valley drink? Have you ever had bulletproof coffee?

Cloud computing expert Dave Aspree (Dave Asprey) went to Xizang to study meditation in 2004, and later changed his spiritual plan because of Xizang's yak butter tea.

When he returned to the United States, he spent years studying the ingredients of yak butter tea, trying to invent a "Star Bingle" hot drink without sugar and milk. "when I was in Xizang, I felt so energetic that I didn't have altitude sickness at that high altitude. All of a sudden I realized it was yak butter tea! There must be some unknown unique ingredients that make me feel good. " Dave recalls. The only "A" course in his undergraduate career was to discover the role of espresso, so he started with coffee to study the ingredients of yak butter tea. He spent 15 years and $300000 doing 3D brain metabolism scans of his brain to study how to eliminate drowsiness while losing 100 pounds of fat, including drinking sugar-free and milk-free coffee.

Dave wanted to make a coffee with the same effect as buttered tea, and after years of experiments, he finally developed a low-fat, low-sugar drink with a dense milky taste. Add 1 or 2 tablespoons of low-fat, low-salt butter and 1 or 2 tablespoons of medium-chain triglycerides (an alternative to coconut oil) to make the coffee taste less "hot". Dave, who named his drink bulletproof Coffee, published a recipe on his blog in 2009, advising people to drink the fatty, 460 + calorie drink instead of breakfast and lose weight by causing ketosis and having a huge impact on cognitive function.

Dave claimed that drinking this coffee with other healthy foods increased his IQ by at least 20 points. Marjorie Nolan Cohn, a spokesman for the American Nutrition Association, said that science cannot confirm what makes people more awake, but "fat is really good for brain function."

This tasty latte-like drink formula has received a lot of popularity. Hollywood rookie actor Shailene Woodley praised "this is one of mankind's greatest achievements" on Twitter, and host Jimmy Fallon also discussed the drink with Maya Rudolph on a talk show. Even Dan Scholnick, an executive at Silicon Valley Trinity Ventures Investment, takes a full set of coffee making equipment (including coffee beans, bean grinders, Aeropress and electric milk bubble machines) with him when he goes on business trips. Of course, there are special butter and coconut oil ingredients used to make bulletproof coffee. "I make bulletproof coffee on the plane and the tools I carry are light and keep me alive at a height of 30000 feet," he said. " He even urged Dave to convince CEO, a project funded by his company, because the wonderful experience of bulletproof coffee changed his life.

At the same time, 7 million people downloaded and watched Dave's podcast of Dave's coffee-making process, including examples of drinking the coffee, including Arianna Huffington, Tim Ferriss and the chief dietitian of the Los Angeles Lakers, who all recommended the drink, which contains no dairy products but ensures a healthy fat intake, which Dave says is good for brain function.

Although the recipe for the coffee drink is free, Dave is gradually expanding his business to 20 employees and selling different "bulletproof coffee" on his self-improvement website. these include low / high drug products, sleep sensor pads, heart rate meters and an $895 brain attention trainer.

Dave would not disclose the company's current sales, but the company has grown sevenfold or eightfold since it sold coffee beans in 2011. Bulletproof coffee is now available in dozens of coffee shops in Silicon Valley, including Picnik Austin, whose owner, Naomi Seifter, said: "it was because my mother sent me a link that I found bulletproof coffee. In the first three months of the introduction of this product, everyone only drank the black coffee version, and no one wanted to add ingredients such as butter. Later, as people gradually understand, this coffee has become one of the most popular in our sales, and it has made us famous. "

The shrewd marketing strategy makes the brand grow rapidly. Although the brand marketing is done well, most people still think that it is because the product itself is excellent that they continue to consume the drink. Omid Ashtari, an executive at Twitter's sports and entertainment division, shared: "the first time I tasted it, it shook my tiger's body and the feeling of brain shock was too strong!" I even started persuading Twitter executives to take a stake in bulletproof coffee. " Dave downplayed the sensation he caused when he released his first recipe: "I'm obviously a reliable person, and I have confidence in my product."

But he admitted that there was a hint of luck in the success of bulletproof Coffee. A few years ago, he flew business class from London to San Francisco on Virgin Atlantic Airlines. His seat was just opposite Herb Herb Kim, founder of the Digital Association of England. At that time, the two began to talk, and Dave told Herb he was going to write a book on how to make people more energetic. I intend to call it "omnipotent human". Herb told him: "silly, you have to change your name, such as' bulletproof human', to reflect the feeling of bulletproof." Dave therefore wrote down the keyword and named the coffee he invented.

Next, bulletproof coffee will evolve further to create an "unfair advantage" that optimizes mitochondria at a price of $60 a month. Bulletproof coffee that can be drunk directly is also in the process of research and development. "if selling coffee beans and ingredients alone can support this platform, this business model may also be feasible, but after all, I didn't learn it in business school." Dave said.

Dave will open his first coffee shop in Los Angeles in the first quarter of 2015, also because most people interested in bulletproof coffee are concentrated in Los Angeles. Dave wanted to open a store in Silicon Valley, but "the rent in San Francisco is so high that Los Angeles is more friendly for startups."

At the same time, he plans to start writing the book on how to make people more energetic and lose weight at the same time. Of course, the name should be "the healthy diet of bulletproof humans".

Source FastCompany

Author Courtney Rubin

Compiled by Liu Youzhi