Coffee, or more accurately...

Leannep2201 wrote: »

I’ve never seen creamer either, but it’s mentioned often on these threads. Must be a US thing?
Can you cut back slowly? Use less of it and substitute with low-fat milk?
I have 2 instant coffees each morn with 1/2tsp sugar and a splash of low-fat milk. 58cal I think for both.

kimny72 wrote: »

Creamer is just a product specifically made to lighten coffee. Dairy or non-dairy, powder or liquid, flavored or plain, it's all called creamer.

Historically, it was non-dairy (short for "non-dairy creamer" -- if it was a dairy product, people called it "cream" or "milk" or "half and half").

I think in these threads, people are most often referring to liquid, sweetened, flavored products that might be dairy, non-dairy, or a mix of dairy and non-dairy fat or fat substitutes.

Cutting back slowly and replacing some of it with plain (unsweetened) milk sounds like a good idea.

Also, could you try cold brew? I find that it borders on sweet when you drink it black, so it would probably need a lot less of what you're adding to get it taste good to you. And in general, buying good coffee beans, as freshly roasted as possible, grinding them yourself just before you brew, and making sure your brewing set-up, press, pour-over gear, or whatever you use is clean, without old coffee oils on them, is going to give you a better-tasting cup to begin with that should, hopefully, need less added to it.

I have never put sugar in my coffee (it tastes vile to me -- the essence of coffee is to be bitter). Once in a long while I might stir the coffee with a spoon I used to put unsulphured molasses in hot cereal, that still has a little film of molasses stuck to it. That's not bad, because the molasses is a mix of bitter and sweet.

I used to prefer my coffee with milk or cream in it, the higher fat, the better, but they stopped having the little ultra pasteurized one-serving half and half containers at work, and the powdered non-dairy stuff they had just clumps up, and if you do get it to dissolve right, you get an oily film on your coffee, so I just learned to drink it black, and now I prefer it that way. I mostly only add milk or cream if it's too hot to drink and I don't want to wait for it to cool down, or if it's bad coffee (over-roasted, old, really weak, insanely strong).

I do have lattes sometimes. I don't get them flavored, and I generally use non-fat milk, which to me has a reasonable calories-to-protein ratio, so I don't even see it as something I have to "fit in" as a treat. It's just a normal food. (At home, if you don't have an espresso machine or some other gizmo for foaming your milk, put the milk in a jar that's at least twice the volume of the milk, close, shake vigorously until it gets foamy, remove lid, nuke in microwave, watching carefully so you can turn the microwave off when the milk starts to rise toward the rim of the jar. So good!)

Orphia wrote: »

I gather this "creamer" has got a lot of sugar in it.

My first boss suggested I stop putting sugar in the nice Italian coffee we used to get from the café next to our bookshop, saying it would spoil the taste.

I went from 2 sugars to none, and did not look back (but still had white coffee). Coffee tastes so nice without sugar. Kind of nutty.

Weaning yourself off it slowly would just prolong the "agony".

Going straight to no sugars, you might find you like a whole new thing, rather settle for a poor substitute for something you have a thing about.

My parents didn't serve coffee to children, but at about 12 I had spent the night at a friend's and her mother offered me a cup of coffee at breakfast prepared the way my friend liked it, white and sweet. I thought it was awful, and almost like a cruel trick, that something that smelled so wonderful should taste so awful.

I think most people like the way coffee smells, and it's kind of weird that so many seem to prefer to cover up the coffee flavor with sugar.

I used to drink energy drinks and my trainer told me that energy drinks are so bad for you that it's better to drink coffee. I told him I hated coffee so he suggested mixing hot chocolate mix instead of sugar.

I've been doing that ever since and as I gradually acquired a taste for coffee I was able to scale back the amount of cream and mix I use. My coffee still ends up being like 222 calories but that's my whole breakfast. It surprisingly gets me through a good portion of the day.

sauronseye wrote: »

It's not necessarily about covering the taste but about the combination of tastes. I don't like sweetened black coffee, but latte with sugar? Yum.

Has anyone successfully cut back on the coffee consumption? I am trying, but it is difficult. I scaled back with the sugar, I only use cca 3 tablespoons altogether now (usually with the first two cups in the day), daily. I am also drinking smaller cups (around 1dl of black coffee and 0.5 dl of milk - don't use creamers, ever) and I'm trying to make them last longer. But I still drink four or five of those during the day.

I know I'm addicted and it's horrible. I'd like to consume lesser amount, two coffees a day would be great!

About 10 or 15 years ago I believed the "experts" about caffeine addiction and how it was a bad thing. I cut out my coffee cold turkey and I had a headache the first day and by the end of the second it was pretty much over. That was it. As far as addictions go it is pretty mild. I never got back into the habit of drinking it again and now if I do early in the morning it seems to make me hungrier through the day. I wouldn't give it up if I was still accustomed to drinking it today.

I was never a fan of coffee creamer but I did like my coffee pretty sweet (a lot of sugar and half/half) several years ago I weaned myself down to 1 tsp sugar and 1 tbsp (approx) of half and half (this is for a travel size mug. For a typical coffee mug I use half of the amounts I mentioned) any more sugar than that is gross to me now. I just slowly decreased the amount of sugar I was putting in there each week until I got to one tsp. You could also use Splenda or something like that for zero calories, but I think Splenda is gross so I just spare the 15 calories for sugar

I use a 1/4 cup of whole in a large coffee.

I use vanilla premier protein shakes in my coffee. 4 oz of it for 58 calories and 11 protein. I love doing this and have never looked back.

chocolate, caramel, and cookies and cream are all good flavors for coffee if you like flavors. I use those moreninnice coffee mixed with the vanilla.

Here's a pic of 4 oz of vanilla in a large mug of coffee, makes it pretty creamy.