It's Big. It's Heavy. It's Wood.

[tertius]

I have just made a sort of coffee abomination. Inspired by the somewhat ridiculous BULLETPROOF COFFEE(mycotoxins! yak butter! Mt. Kailash! Intermittent Fasting!), I have begun experimenting with putting butter in hot, flavorful liquids. No variety of tea I have made has stood up well to the butter challenge, however. I have yet to try it with proper cocoa.

Now, normally I despise coffee. I am very sensitive to some bitter compounds, and it makes coffee very unpalatable to me. Of course, it smells delicious. But the smells are lies. LIES!

So I thought to myself... maybe adding butter will smooth over the bitter compounds, and I will only taste the wonderful bits.

I remembered that Rip roasts his own coffee, and searched the site for his views on the matter, and found the link to Sweet Maria's caffeine FAQ. There I discovered the news that theobromine may relax smooth muscle, which is good for my IBS (and may also explain part of my deep love of chocolate, as calming my turbulent guts definitely increases my sense of well-being). So I thought, maybe I should pair chocolate with this coffee.

Went to the market, picked out a locally roasted coffee (Mexico Chiapas, described as mild, fruity, and sweet) and got some unsweetened cocoa. Put a mounded spoon of each in the lady's bodum press. Added just boiled water. Brewed for five minutes. Put in the blender with 1-2 tbsp of grass-fed butter, and a tsp of dark brown sugar. Blended, added a shot of milk.

It formed a very sturdy foam, which periodically would lose a layer of bubbles with a sharp hiss.

The result: buttery, smooth, slightly sweet, slightly bitter, slightly acidic, a subtle dark chocolate flavor, a pleasant coffee base. Acidity increasing as I approached the dregs, but also the chocolate and butter flavors. Very interesting.

Now I just need to watch what it does to my gut, and see if the famous effects of coffee to stimulate the GI tract (which I really don't need, though I'm sure y'all don't care to know) are balanced out by the theobromine from the chocolate.

[tertius]

Mass: 88.0 kg

Front Squat
125 x5x3

Bench Press
105 x5x3

Good work today, even though I'm very sleepy. Weirdly full in the gym, so I rowed a 2:00 500m, then benched, and squatted last. Wore my belt for the work sets, just cause. Right knee very, very angry with me for a few minutes after the last set. Rode the bike at the end of last week... also it occurs to me that I bruised the shit out of the inside of my knee last summer using it to take soil samples (it was tender for weeks), right where it continues to hurt. And today I drove the soil probe into the ground a few times demonstrating with this very joint. Maybe I'm not so smart?

Anyway, have some tunes.

[Oldster]

I talked with my lifting partner about you and moving out West here and it looks like you'll be meeting him too!

You'll know me, I'll be the little one....

[tertius]

I talked with my lifting partner about you and moving out West here and it looks like you'll be meeting him too!

You'll know me, I'll be the little one....

I'm going to have to buy some pianos, just so you two can move them.

[Oldster]

Don't buy any pianos. We prefer banjos. We only know the song off 'Deliverance'.....Ned.....

[Mark E. Hurling]

What did happen on the Cahulawassee River? You know, I've heard people native to the Pacific Northwest refer to rural areas as banjo country.

[tertius]

What did happen on the Cahulawassee River? You know, I've heard people native to the Pacific Northwest refer to rural areas as banjo country.

Well, it can't be as bad as downstate Illinois.

[Mark E. Hurling]

I see you've been along the banks of the Big Muddy River then. Then again there's the joke even the rest of the residents of Little Egypt tell about Pope County. The fish and wildlife census compared to the one the feds do shows more deer than people there.

Da-da-da-dang-dang! (rings out the banjo)

[Oldster]

Well, it can't be as bad as downstate Illinois.

Just stay away from the Darrington country. I may joke about just about everything, but not this. Do NOT go into any bars in Darrinington. It is a nice place to see, a nice place to visit and then pass through. Very beautiful country to view and hike. But the people are more than cliquish, they are frighteningly strange.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Sounds like Cairo, IL. Definitely a group of swamp rats you want to avoid.

EDIT: Looked it up and see it was in one of my and Dearly Beloved's favorite movies, Wargames. That was beautiful scene supposedly in CO but actually in WA where much of it was filmed.

Do-you-want-to-play-a-game?