Every coffee drinker has a story.

I don’t bake. Lucky for me and all the other baketards in this world, there are people like my friend Izaiah Buseth who not only bake well, but experiment with flavor combinations in their recipes that result in delicious sweets.

Izaiah’s Double Chocolate Espresso Coconut Oatmeal Cookies recipe won third place in Denver’s County Fair last month. Although they’re what Izaiah considers a winter cookie, he was kind enough to prepare a batch this past weekend and show me one example of how he incorporates coffee and espresso into his baking. Eating them made me feel like I’d been transported to Hawaiian Candy Land and was eating volcanic pumice. Weird, right? Apparently drinking coffee and eating sweets spurs strange mental images for me. The cookies were warm and crumbly in a way that I’ve never experienced before. I’m used to soft and gooey molasis-like texture or crisp and super fine crumbliness. The texture of Izaiah’s cookies was incredible.

Izaiah reminds me most of a coffee I’ve had from Aceh, Sumatra. His interest in intense flavor combinations and his mindfulness of seasonal baking is comparable to how I feel about the Tawar, which is a combination of Catimor, Java, and Jember coffee varietals. Too heavy for summer, I can’t wait to sip on the Tawar in the middle of winter—and if I try my hand at baking (see recipe for Izaiah’s cookies below), I’ll have the perfect cookie to dip in my coffee.

I make videos because I love learning about people’s passions, and I enjoy connecting people to people by sharing their stories. While researching coffee (my obsession) over the past four years, I discovered that many creatives rely on coffee as a drug. They love what it does to their brain and how it’s a catalyst for creativity.

Coffee is complex. So are people. Drink up.

Double Chocolate Espresso Coconut Oatmeal Cookies

1C butter, softened

¾ C granulated sugar

¾ C brown sugar

2 t vanilla

2 eggs

1¾ C all-purpose flour

1½ C rolled oats

¼ C cocoa powder

2 T instant espresso

3 T malted milk powder

1 t baking soda

1 t salt

2 C chocolate chips

½ C shredded coconut, minced

1.       preheat oven to 375

2.       mix together the flour, oats, cocoa powder, instant espresso, malted milk powder, baking soda and salt in a bowl

3.       cream butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla in a mixer

4.       add eggs one at a time, beating well

5.       add flour mixture to butter mixture in 3-4 additions

6.       stir in chocolate chips and coconut

7.       refrigerate dough for 15-20 minutes

8.       drop in tablespoonfuls onto cookie sheet

9.       bake for 8-10 minutes