Dunkin fanatic.

In warm weather, iced coffee (or cold brew), no sweetener, usually no cream, although on occasion I'll put a small splash of milk or half and half in.

In hot weather, an americano or a latte, sometimes with nonfat milk instead of 2%. Once in a while a flat white. Calories from milk don't concern me, as I get the protein and calcium for my calories.

Flavor swirls are dairy sweeteners at about 50 calories, so I rarely add any extra creams or sugars. My go-to in warm weather is iced coffee or cold brew with one flavor of choice and 1 skim milk. At Starbucks the chocolate cream cold brew is normally made with 3 vanilla syrups and chocolate cold foam. I omit the vanilla syrup, add one sugar free vanilla syrup and change to light chocolate cold foam. If you download the apps for these places you can customize and preorder. This gives you more control and knowledge.

I make Dunkin coffee at home and use a bit of their Extra Extra creamer (not low cal). If I order I get the regular coffee at starbucks with a splash of half and half and a bit of sugar.

springlering62 wrote: »

BTW, if you’re American and don’t have an electric kettle, you’re seriously missing out. Also great for making jello, “clarifying” tap water to make yogurt etc, fast prep to boil water for pasta or soups. I don’t know why we’ve never caught on to them over here.

+1 to this. As a british person it is genuinely incomprehensible how people don't have a kettle

To add to the stereotype - tea is the choice for me. Some lovely earl grey with a slice of lemon.

Good question. I could not do without an electric kettle. It's much faster compared to a stovetop one. When I'm impatient I boil water in it to use for e.g. pasta as it's about 3x faster than cooking the same amount of water in a pot. Generally when I need to add more water to my dinner I switch on the kettle instead of pouring cold water into the pot. It's pretty much the only small kitchen appliance that I own, next to a small rice cooker. Don't need instapots, fryers, all the other stuff, but the kettle is non-negotiable. Due to the shape it keeps warm for longer, thus when my tea is consumed I don't need to heat up the water from scratch again, hence saving energy (I do drink masses of tea!)

THIS!!!

I used to get a medium caramel mocha iced coffee with cream and sugar, so I know how you feel! I have since switched my go-to dunkin order to a medium caramel iced coffee with 2 caramel swirls, 2 cream, and no sugar (and for the record, I like sweet and don't like the taste of coffee lol -- the swirl has enough sugar in it once you are able to ween off of the added sugar).

Since I no longer have to drive to work, at home, I make homemade cold brew (half gallon mason jar with a wide mouth lid, a cold brew filter, and a reusable plastic lid for wide mouth jars (all from amazon). I then add in 2 tbsp of sweet cream creamer and 2 tbsp of any choice of coffee syrup from Davinci or Torani.

My daily "DIY" coffee comes out to about 121 calories, 22g carbs, 3g fat, 1g protein, 22g sugar. Not to mention, it saves a lot of money if you can make something just as tasty at home!

My first instinct - for coffee drinkers -- is drink your coffee how you like it and simply make room for it in your daily calorie intake.

If you want to try and get a little less calories for it (particularly if what you like to drink has a LOT of calories)...look on the ticket for Dunkin and see how many cream/sugar are in it. Like for a medium, it's '3' of each. For a large it's '4' of each.

So, whatever size you get...try getting one less of each and sort of ween yourself off and save some calories.

But, ultimately, if you want coffee in the morning and you don't like it other ways --- enjoy your coffee.

I cannot for the life of me understand how anyone can go to a Dunkin or Starbucks for a high calorie coffee and not leave without a high calorie something else to go with it.

Old me would have required a sampling of at least half a dozen donuts before I could get out the door. (Although I would have rationalized that a dozen was the “better deal” and left with that.)

Hats off to those of you managing “just” coffee.

…..or, are you? 😈

I like chai lattes, caramel frapps and chocolate chip fraps. I'm sure there's more, but there's not much variety in New Zealand. I think Gloria Jeans used to make a tim tam drink that was nice.

lynn_glenmont wrote: »

littlegreenparrot1 wrote: »

springlering62 wrote: »

BTW, if you’re American and don’t have an electric kettle, you’re seriously missing out. Also great for making jello, “clarifying” tap water to make yogurt etc, fast prep to boil water for pasta or soups. I don’t know why we’ve never caught on to them over here.

+1 to this. As a british person it is genuinely incomprehensible how people don't have a kettle

To add to the stereotype - tea is the choice for me. Some lovely earl grey with a slice of lemon.

What is the benefit of an electric kettle over a kettle I sit on my stove top burner? To me an electric kettle has more "moving parts" than an old-fashioned kettle I heat on the stove -- more things to go wrong. I used the same Corningware kettle for about 40 years, until it started to look like maybe there was some kind of wear occurring with the inner lining, and I chucked it just in case and got a new glass kettle with a whistle top. It probably won't last as long as the old one (new things never seem to), but at this point in my life it could still outlast me.

For small amounts of water, I occasionally just pop a measuring cup in the microwave instead of using the kettle.

Anyway, I'm seriously interested in what the benefit of the electric kettle is over the stove. If it's time, I generally use the time I'm waiting for water to boil to prep the coffee set-up (French press or pour-over) or to select my tea and measure it into the infuser, then maybe fixing some food to go with my drink, putting clean dishes away, washing up, etc.

An electric kettle is faster, and also uses less energy.

In 2012, I stayed with friends who had one, and have enjoyed one in my own home ever since.

neanderthin wrote: »

Give people a choice between a regular coffee or basically a dessert, I wonder what the popular pick would be. Espresso for the win.

I don't drink coffee and I almost never crave sweets, but if the dessert was Key Lime pie then it's a no brainer for me. I frequently call it Kryptonite pie. LOL. Oddly, the sweets I like aren't really sweets, I lean toward tart/citrus.

Sorry, for the slight topic derailment. Now back to your regularly scheduled thread.

I'm a coffee addict. I grew up in a household of coffee addicts where the pot was always brewing. And I couldn't even think of eating anything until I'd had at least 2 cups to start my day. At the height of my coffee addiction (well really my addiction to the stuff in the coffee) I was drinking like 8 cups per day, but I cut it down to 2 or occasionally 3.

Yummy always just got me in trouble, no matter what, lol. I've found that even artificial sweeteners, when you're getting like 6-8 packets of them and a whole bunch of creamer, makes for a pretty hefty chunk of calories out of my day.

For a while I got satisfaction just making coffee at home, or getting black coffee at Dunkin and bringing it home to fix up. I went the Torani sugar free syrups for a while, or I'd make iced coffee by blending it with ice, a packet of Spenda, a squirt of sugar free chocolate, some milk/creamer, & low fat cool whip.

That worked for me for the first 40 lb loss or so... until it didn't work for me anymore. With my blood sugar and food addictions, any artificial sweeteners were spiking me and kept triggering my sweet cravings leading to more cheats and stalls than I'd like.

I gave up all added sugars and daily artificial sweeteners, that scared me because of my coffee love and for a while I was just throwing back a couple of ounces of black coffee to keep from getting a caffeine headache. I found that with a little heavy cream, the creaminess flavor is more satisfying than the sugary flavor. So now I get it no sugar/2 tbsp heavy cream, or at DD I get it with 3 tbsp half and half in a small cup. Or if they're out of half and half I'll get it with coconut cream. By cutting out the sweets, my sweet tooth died down, so I don't miss the sugar anymore, but I gotta have it creamy.

My 1st coffee of the day now is my breakfast/coffee combo: In a cup I add a raw egg and a tbsp or two of butter and whip them with a stick blender. Then I slowly pour in boiling hot coffee while whipping so it cooks the egg but makes it creamy/frothy rather than scrambled. Sounded crazy to me at first but it's so delicious and frothy and satisfying... unless I'm fasting that's how I start every day now.

And that is my coffee ramble lol.

yirara wrote: »

Non-American here, thus please excuse my question: Why? It's just candy with (possibly) some caffeine. If I want something sweet I buy candy, and if I want coffee I cook it (Syrian with cardamom, without anything added). I to be honest also don't understand why to buy coffee. And then? Drink it while driving to work? Go there, stand about and drink, drive home?
/confused rant

I brew my own at home with an aeropress. I seldom buy it out unless I’m traveling, meeting someone social, or need a cheap excuse to take the dog the local bakery for a free squirrel dog cookie. I feel obligated to buy something. 🤷🏻‍♀️

I think that a paper coffee cup is like a fashion statement for many here. It makes them look trendy having one in their hand.

There’s always laziness, or time constraint ,although I can’t fathom why, since the lines are incredible, and that’s if you do drive thru and don’t have to fight to find parking. We always goggle at the line wrapping around Starbucks

We just got back from visiting several countries in the Balkans, and there was very little “take out” coffee- just self-serve machines in the back of small groceries.

I think the whole concept is wasteful and extravagant. I don’t think people stop to figure that the 1,2, or 3 fancy cups they buy a day are maki g a massive dent in both their financial and calorie budgets.

My small touristy town has a Starbucks and two independent coffee shops on the small Square. All three do a booming business. The many, many trash cans absolutely overflow with coffee cups, even though Parks & Rec empties them several times a day. And people leave empties under benches, on the rim of the big fountain, on shop window sills, or in the gardens.

It drives me nuts!!!!

yirara wrote: »

Non-American here, thus please excuse my question: Why? It's just candy with (possibly) some caffeine. If I want something sweet I buy candy, and if I want coffee I cook it (Syrian with cardamom, without anything added). I to be honest also don't understand why to buy coffee. And then? Drink it while driving to work? Go there, stand about and drink, drive home?
/confused rant

Americans aren't a hive mind and all Americans don't like the same things. Some Americans order sweetened drinks at coffee shops; others order plain coffee. Or tea. Or milk. I would imagine the ones who order sweetened drinks do so because they like the taste. I would order a black Americano, which is espresso and hot water, because I like the taste. Each to their own.

I'm not sure what's confusing about buying coffee. Coffee is no different than any other food or drink which people buy in a restaurant or on the go.