Coffee at your laziest
I’m lazy. Anyone who knows me can attest to that. It’s not something I’m proud of, but there is no point about lying about it. I’m as lazy a person as it comes. This means, that I do look for shortcuts whenever possible, and that’s always been my approach to coffee.
Like many Latin Americans, I grew up drinking instant coffee, and I did not change that habit until my mother gifted me a Keurig machine, some time over a decade ago. Brewing coffee was just too much trouble. I had added milk and sugar to my coffee until I discovered creamers – probably not too long after they started to fill supermarket refrigerators. Creamers – or so I thought – combine milk/cream and sugar, plus often another flavoring, cutting one step in my morning coffee making. Plus, to be honest, they taste better than just milk.
Alas, until I started reviewing different creamers for this blog post, I hadn’t actually looked at the ingredients on creamers. I had assumed – silly me! – tha they were made from milk or cream, given that most brands distinguished between their regular and non-dairy varieties. Imagine my surprise when I realized than the cheaper brands don’t have milk or cream at all. They are not technically diary-free only because they include milk-derived proteins such as sodium caseinate and micellar casein, but otherwise they are a mixture of sugar, oil and water. Yuck. One brand, Coffee Mate, even includes cellulose!
Truth be told, until reading the ingredients, I usually bought from whatever brand was on sale at Safeway that week – usually for $3 or $4. I’ve tried the natural ingredients brands, but I hadn’t enjoyed the flavors as much. I might be revisiting them, however.
The purpose of this blog post is as a memory aid of the creamers I try and my impression of them, to see whether I’ll buy them again. I do like variety above almost everything.
Bad ingredient creamers:
Coffee Mate Pumpkin Spice (on sale for $3 from $6 regular price)
I got this seasonal flavor for my daughter, but I tried it after I run out of my regular creamer. It’s not for me – I’m not a big fan of pumpkin spice anything, much less in coffee. My daughter liked it, however.
Ingredient wise, Coffee Mate is pretty terrible. This has water, sugar, soybean oil, dipotassium phosphate, micellar casein, diglycerides, cellulose gel, natural and artificial flavor, cellulose gum, carrageenan, acesulfame potassium and sucralose. It has 35 calories per Tbsp.
Delight Apple Butter Coffee Cake.
I totally hesitated before getting this flavor because “apple” and “coffee” don’t go together, even when followed by cake. Still, I was already planning to write this blog entry and I was curious, plus the reviews were pretty good.
Alas, I have a cold – so my ability to taste is compromised. I’ll write back my impressions of the creamer again in a few days.
Right now, most of what I can taste in my coffee is the apple butter. It’s not too sweet, so I don’t think I’ve added too much creamer, but the flavor of the artificial apple butter is so strong that it completely hides that of my medium-roast coffee. I may try it on dark-roasted coffee and see whether it stands up better against it. The results are not unpleasant, but also, not coffee. As it’s now, I’ll finish the bottle but I wouldn’t buy it again.
Delight is also one of those bad-ingredient creamers. It has water, sugar, palm oil, sodium caseinate, dipotassium phosphate, carrageenan, mono and diglycerides, flavoring, sodium stearoyl lactylate and salt.
Lucerne Belgian Chocolate Toffee (on sale for $3 from $4 regular price).
This has been my go-to creamer. I like the chocolate flavor and the “toffee” seems to round it up. The ingredients, however, are just awful, and I should probably just buy chocolate milk instead. They are: water, sugar, vegetable oil, cocoa, sodium caseinate, dipotassium phosphate, DATEM, artificial flavor, cellulose gum, polysorbate 60, salt, carrageenan. Despite this, it’s not vegan because the sodium caseinate comes from milk products.
Actually milk/cream based creamers:
Starbucks Caramel Macchiato (on sale for $4 from $8 regular price).
I enjoyed this creamer quite a bit. It gave my coffee a creamy mouthfeel and it had a nice, sweet caramel flavor which wasn’t too overwhelming. I’d buy it again.
Ingredients are: nonfat milk, sugar, heavy cream, buttermilk, vegetable oil, “natural” flavor and gellam gum.
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