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MyFitnessPal Community

Coffee lovers who calorie count

MossyTea

Is there a coffee that you enjoy drinking black? I have tried a couple but nothing seems to stick for me. I usually put Coffee Mate hazelnut creamer but the calories add up.
I just tried Starbucks Espresso and Cream Light (in a can) 6.5fl oz it is 70 calories. It tasted great and kept me energized. Another plus is being able to just scan it with this app and not measure how much creamer I am using. Please share your coffee secrets!

Replies

mtaratoot

I am a coffee drinker. I don't have a problem.

I have several beans that I buy that I like. I drink it black. Sometimes at night (when the cold winds blow), I'll have a decaf with unsweetened cocoa powder and maybe a little turbinado. I call that candy coffee. Someone else here calls it "Choffee."

I make pour-over coffee with 25 grams of beans to make a mug about 15 ounces.

Fresh beans is the key. Not too fresh - they need a day or three after being roasted to mature, but after that they need to be fresh. Keep them in an airtight container. Don't put them in the refrigerator or freezer. Grind before you make them. I love coffee. I'm going to go make a decaf RIGHT NOW.

AnnPT77

I prefer my coffee with a good lot of hot skim milk, frothed with a hand frother if I'm feeling fancy.

I do use good beans from a local roaster, but the origin, roast, etc. vary because I enjoy variety. I'm working my way through their extensive list of coffees (the non-flavored ones) and deciding which ones I like best. I just finished a bag of fair trade/organic Ethiopian, which I liked very much.

I grind the beans at home (but in a blade rather than burr grinder), and use a porcelain pour-over holder with a paper filter plus hot water from a stovetop tea kettle to make it. I usually use 165g of skim milk, microwaved to heat (sometimes there's a skin on top to remove after heating). How much coffee per cup depends on the size of the cup. My favorite cup is big, so the milk is a small fraction. Two heaping tablespoons of coffee is good, in that case. With a smaller cup, I use somewhat more coffee, because the milk can overwhelm the coffee's flavor when it's a larger fraction of the cup.

When I froth it, I use a Ninja hand frother I got on Amazon, very easy to use. The frothed milk has a luxurious mouth-feel, and the milk is bonus protein for me (5.7g protein, 56 calories).

For ease, I log it with an MFP "meal" I set up with brewed coffee and 165g of milk in the "meal". I just put the cup on my food scale, zero/tare the scale, pour in milk until it's 165g (or close enough), then stick it in the microwave to heat.

perryc05

The apex of coffee is Lion Brand:
https://www.lioncoffee.com/

yirara

I have Arab coffee powder with cardamom that I simply cook on the stove top. Drink it without any further additions. I'm more of a teadrinker generally, but still, this is tasty.

mtaratoot

perryc05 wrote: »

The apex of coffee is Lion Brand:
https://www.lioncoffee.com/

Lion is decent. Where I live, there are lots of small independent coffee roasters that produce amazing coffee.

Beans grown on Kona are for sure quite good. Some of our local roasters sell Kona coffee. There's lots of other options. If you're somewhere you can try some other kinds of coffee, I'd recommend you do.

foldinthecheese

As long as the beans are "good enough" a good roaster can produce beans that make great coffee. Yes, for amazing coffee you need amazing beans and an amazing roast, but that's very hard to find.

My advice is to find a good roaster and talk to them. In my experience, they love to teach new-comers about good coffee.

I make espresso almost exclusively and my favorite beans usually have a bit of a chocolatey flavor (it's just the flavor of the beans, no chocolate added).

Sometimes I buy beans from Costco because there's a local roaster whose beans costco sells and they often have beans roasted within the last week.

Some nicer grocery stores also sell beans in bulk that have been roasted quite recently (they're delivered directly by the company).

Rule of thumb - if you can't determine when the beans were roasted - avoid those.

mtaratoot

foldinthecheese wrote: »

As long as the beans are "good enough" a good roaster can produce beans that make great coffee. Yes, for amazing coffee you need amazing beans and an amazing roast, but that's very hard to find.

My advice is to find a good roaster and talk to them. In my experience, they love to teach new-comers about good coffee.

I make espresso almost exclusively and my favorite beans usually have a bit of a chocolatey flavor (it's just the flavor of the beans, no chocolate added).

Sometimes I buy beans from Costco because there's a local roaster whose beans costco sells and they often have beans roasted within the last week.

Some nicer grocery stores also sell beans in bulk that have been roasted quite recently (they're delivered directly by the company).

Rule of thumb - if you can't determine when the beans were roasted - avoid those.

Agreed!

A friend who I dive with has a micro roasting business on the side. He sells at the weekly farmer's market. For beans that he roasted more than a week ago, he just makes coffee and gives it away and tells people he wouldn't sell those beans. He makes very good coffee, and he gave me some that made me realize I like medium roast as good as dark roast if it's roasted right and is fresh.

kdunn7179

Good beans make the difference! Find out what you like. Bonus if you have your own coffee grinder or can roast your own beans.

AdahPotatah2024

https://jitteryjoes.com/collections/coffee/products/guatemala-huehuetenango-organic-1?variant=29449121038447

I can enjoy any really good quality coffee black but always prefer it with cream and sugar. Just have learned to drink one or two, and then switch to black coffee if any afterwards to not overdo it:)

neanderthin

Yeah, I'm a coffeeholic, no doubt about that, I have a few grinders. I have a 1zpresso ultra for traveling and an opus. I like Ethiopian, Brazilian and Columbian coffee's with many great estates and many reasonably priced. Personally I would recommend espresso for someone trying to wean off milk and sugar, the creamy consistency helps and i find the Brazilian coffee to have a lot of chocolate and nutty flavors that help as well. Espresso is my main go to coffee.

pamz1013

I am new & the one thing I can not ever give up is MyCOFFEE. Unfortunately, I prefer a Lil coffee with my cream.

I can not handle black coffee & love the creamy smoothness of half & half in my morning brew. I just began yesterday working with a fitness trainer & we discussed how I start my day. I'm going to measure my 1/2 & 1/2 and input into my daily food log. I may be surprised 😮 to see the result !

mtaratoot

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/comment/48572567#Comment_48572567

I used to wonder how people could drink and enjoy black coffee. Now I wonder why people pollute it with stuff. Some of it is habit, and you can change your tastes. If I have to have really awful coffee for some reason, then maybe I will splash something in there, but I'd rather have a cup of well-made high quality coffee with nothing added. My dentist is happy about that; adding stuff to coffee leaves more substrate for plaque to grow, especially if you sip your coffee over a longer time.

Back in the day it was half and half. I even added (gasp) honey. For a number of different reasons, I had tried other white liquids than half and half. I tried whole milk. It was OK. I tried 2% milk; no bueno. I tried soy milk, flavored or no. It was OK, but I don't like the chunks it sometimes leaves.

I stopped adding honey or sugar. That wasn't hard. I still used half and half. I discovered a coconut-based creamer at Trader Joe's that was really low calorie and actually quite good. I used that for years. I still take a container when I go on a river trip especially if someone else is in charge of making coffee. I was really glad to have that one year when the person assigned to coffee didn't even drink the stuff. The coffee was awful, and all he brought was that powdered stuff that is made of weird chemicals and also tastes awful. Also fortunate - I brought enough to share. One of the kayakers was a needy fellow, and he couldn't abide the black coffee and hadn't brought any creamer. Long story. Funny thing: The last eleven miles was on flat water. We tied the rafts together and used an outboard to motor out. I keep an emergency backpack stove on my raft. I actually made a pour-over while we were motoring out, and since I hadn't had a real coffee in almost a week, it was the best cup of coffee I had ever had.

I used a measuring spoon for that coconut creamer. I could have used a scale, but it's too easy to accidentally pour too much. I got pretty good at measuring out one HALF serving of the stuff. It was plenty.

I don't know when I started skipping the creamer. It wasn't easy at first. I missed the creaminess. It didn't take too long though, and now I can't imagine using it. Even on raft trips, as long as the coffee maven knows what they're doing, it needs nothing.

pamz1013

Thnk you i will try some of your recommendations !

Jazzykatt

I don’t really like black coffee so I use unsweetened silk cashew milk. It’s only 25 cal a cup. I also love Pete’s, hazelnut and mocha.

mtaratoot

If you don't like coffee, have you tried tea?

Kupla71

I drink Kicking Horse coffee black. I like the Grizzly Claw brew the best but 454 Horsepower is good too. Long ago I used to add sugar and milk to my coffee but now I can’t stand either in my coffee. You really can get used to black coffee. I first cut out the milk. Then after some time cut the sugar. The reason was I sometimes didn’t have milk in my fridge so would have to have it without it. Cutting the sugar just naturally followed.

Retroguy2000

The coffee creamer is potentially far fewer calories than you think. I use the Nestle creamer and while the stated calories per serving sound like a lot, I once counted the number of cups I was getting from the bottle, and it was about 3x as many servings as the label said. So the total calories is just 1/3rd of what the label says, for me.

lynn_glenmont

I never enjoyed sugar in my coffee -- it tasted nasty to me -- and I mostly put milk/cream in it to get it to drinking temperature immediately. Nowadays I'm just more patient about letting it cool a bit, but I still use milk/cream for bad coffee (too weak or "cooked" too long on a burner after brewing or old grounds). Milk I don't worry about, as I consider it a nutritious drink, and cream (or half and half) I just keep to reasonable quantities.

My best suggestion is to measure how much creamer/milk/cream/sweetener you're using and reduce your additions gradually.

it sounds like you're brewing your own, so buy your coffee in small batches, grind your own beans, and don't buy more until you're getting close to the end of your current batch. You may want to experiment with different roasts, brands, etc., but I find it doesn't make much difference if I'm using fresh beans from a good roaster. I try different local roasters for variety.

maryjay52

thankfully I like my coffee black

kathleeneglaser1

I also drink my coffee with coffee mate hazelnut creamer. I’ve gotten myself down to 2 cups a day instead of seven lol. I just decided to do a trial of the Javi coffee syrup with the protein shake. I hope it’s good because I need more than just 2 cups of coffee a day.

Fitgoal90

I find that locally-roasted whole beans are wonderful when ground yourself before brewing. If I do need a little something, however, I enjoy zero-sugar creamer.

International Delight has a couple of good options.

Leeleelahlah

I use stevia sweetener and unsweetened almond milk in my coffee. 30 cals—for the milk (and I use a lot of milk, so you can definitely get away with adding only 10 calories’ worth).

nicsflyingcircus

I use SF syrup if I want the sweetness, plus ultra-filtered 2% milk. Gives me a big mug of coffee for like 30 calories, with a little bonus dash of protein.

benol1

Yeah,

When my son recently visited from Melbourne he brought me the gift of 1kg of beans from his favourite roaster. It’s ideal for brewing with a moka-pot which makes a very strong espresso-like coffee. This particular blend is very delicious black and different again from bean blends I get from my local coffee roaster. I’m sure the coffee is also very delicious as a milk based drink.

hamoore86

I'm not sure how much of a "coffee snob" you are, but if you are like me (not at all), you might try flavored coffees! My favorites tend to be hazlenut and vanilla. We like both the Dunkin and the Starbucks ground coffees in our french press, and they are delicious black.