Coffee question

browneyes1520
browneyes1520 Posts: 94 Member
edited December 3 in Food and Nutrition
Why is it that if I go buy a coffee at let's say McDonald's or Tim Hortons or any other place like that and I get it with 2 cream, it doesn't matter what size I buy it's still only 40 calories? I mean on the surface it seems logical since no matter size I get I'm still asking for only 2 cream but they always look and taste the same. So wouldn't it stand to reason that in order for a large coffee to be the same color and taste as a small coffee with 2 cream the large would need more cream? I'm totally fine with my large with supposedly only 2 cream being only 40 calories it just doesn't necessarily make sense to me. Thoughts?

Replies

  • jemhh
    jemhh Posts: 14,261 Member
    I just looked at the McDonald's nutrition builder. It is 20 calories for each cream. If you are getting two creams, no matter the size of coffee, it's always going to be 2x20 calories = 40 calories. I know that I put more cream in larger sizes. I think that the color/taste are perceptions on your part.
  • peleroja
    peleroja Posts: 3,979 Member
    edited September 2016
    I believe at Tim Hortons, those calorie numbers are incorrect because they use a machine that pumps out the cream in proportion to the size of the coffee (so a large has quite a lot more than a small.) I don't know precise amounts but I would be very skeptical, personally, of any database entry showing a large double cream from Timmy's with that few calories.

    ETA: per the nutrition builder on Tim Horton's website, a large coffee with two "shots" of cream is 172 calories. The small with two "shots" is 84 calories, so it appears I was correct, unfortunately.
  • browneyes1520
    browneyes1520 Posts: 94 Member
    @ peleroja - holy cow! Wow thank you for that. I have been greatly underestimating the amount of calories in my 2 cream coffee :( glad to know that it tasting the same and being the same color and everything wasn't just my own "perception".
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  • 25lbsorbust
    25lbsorbust Posts: 225 Member
    If I were you I'd buy it black at McDonalds and then add the cream yourself, either through single-serving creamers if you're on the go, or just from the carton if you wind up near a fridge. That way you know exactly how much is going in! I know my s/o asks for his 3 cream 1 sugar, and sometimes he says it tastes way sweeter than other times.
  • BrianSharpe
    BrianSharpe Posts: 9,248 Member
    @ peleroja - holy cow! Wow thank you for that. I have been greatly underestimating the amount of calories in my 2 cream coffee :( glad to know that it tasting the same and being the same color and everything wasn't just my own "perception".

    In Timmy's case it's because they use 18% cream which has about 50% more calories per 15ml than half & half (10%)
  • juliebowman4
    juliebowman4 Posts: 784 Member
    More and more I'm finding that the MFP database of loaded with incorrect info :(
  • peleroja
    peleroja Posts: 3,979 Member
    @ peleroja - holy cow! Wow thank you for that. I have been greatly underestimating the amount of calories in my 2 cream coffee :( glad to know that it tasting the same and being the same color and everything wasn't just my own "perception".

    Glad I could help but I'm sorry about the coffee!
  • This is why I add my own cream. Some places like Dunkin Donuts that don't allow the customer to tend to their own coffee, or the drive thru at Starbucks. I do not order coffee at those places. I don't need or want anyone effin' around with my coffee. Mostly because I know exactly how I like it, and second I want to know how much cream went in. It's just not possible to really know what someone else puts in unless you see it with your own eyes.
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