Are coffee whiteners really that bad?

I call it whitener but I thought I was the only one. (I use the term in a postmodern, ironically detached sense. I also use the whitener.)

I grew up seeing that bottle of carnation coffee mate on the kitchen counter. The break rooms at jobs I’ve worked always had it too.

Milk is such a hassle. It spoils so quick. I didn’t realize some folks still use it in coffee.

I learn something new every day. :wink:

I drink my coffee black. Saves me a lot of trouble.

Try using coffee ice cream in your morning eye opener. Mmmmmm.

Half-&-half is more substantial than milk (being a blend of half milk, half heavy cream). Half-&-half pretty much “creams” like artificial creamer does (given the right proportions).

Whole milk is good in coffee, but you need to up the milk-to-coffee ratio to get it nice and lightened up (i.e. cafe au lait). Cafe au lait is very popular around here, but customers don’t mix in the milk themselves – it’s done by the barista/counterperson.

And of course, the ever-popular latte is espresso plus milk.

In my experience, creamers or whiteners are found at diners and chain restaurants.

Upscale restuarants use milk. And every single coffee place has several containers of half-and-half, whole milk, and reduced fat milks to choose from.

I’d imagine that most people brought up in the Starbucks Era think of milk as the default when it comes to coffee.

Ya. I thought this thread was going to be about some kind of tooth enamel whitener marketed to coffee drinkers specifically or something.

Half&Half for me. And I’ve never been to a diner/restaurant/fast food place even, that didn’t offer real Half&Half either in a teeny pitcher or in the plastic little single serve cups. Even 7eleven and the other convenience stores have both Coffee Mate and Half&Half.

I cut high fructose corn syrup and hydrogenated oils out of my diet a few years ago. That caused elimination of the powder and liquid non-dairy creamers in one fell swoop.

As to the “serving” of powdered creamer - one “serving” is just a single teaspoon. I don’t know anybody who uses just one teaspoon of that stuff.

Me, too. Its ‘creamer’ around these parts for everyone I know (now and in past) and interact with, fwiw. Milk-based stuff is just called ‘cream’ (or milk).

Powdered creamer (yech!) makes great ~fire-starter helper, ime. Sprinkle a bit of the powder over a smallish open flame and watch it burn quickly (if you care to, that is). Lotta energy in that stuff!

You mean like how people caught on right away that Tylenol causes three times as many cases of liver failure than every other drug combined, or that tobacco causes lung cancer? Even when we know that things cause problems, they don’t immediately get banned. It took almost a hundred years after people recognized that asbestos made people sick for the US to ban it; lead paint has a similar history.

Hydrogen dioxide?

It’s not so much that they’re bad, it’s just that I’d rather eat food. Powdered margarine, a synthetic product that is manufactured to resemble cream, has gone a bit beyond that point for me.

fyi
Here in merry old england coffee whitener is the only term used, never heard creamer.

I you drink a lot of milked / creamed coffee you’re also consuming a lot of sodium. Not so if use Cremora ( 0 sodium).

I doubt it.
Dihydrogen monoxide, possibly.

Nope – I came in here to see what the OP meant by “whitener”, in fact.

I like my International Delight creamer (French Vanilla or Irish Cream), and you’ll pry out of my cold dead hands. (I also occassionally will use it in hot chocolate)

Dry powdered milk makes a satisfactory, shelf-stable coffee additive in a pinch, and it still tastes better than any creamer/whitener that I’ve encountered.

Call it DHMO or hydric acid, but remember, whatever the name, that stuff can kill you!

Whoa, check this out: according to wiki, the dry stuff is flammable! Cool!

Cafe au Lait is made with very hot milk. That’s why they fix it for you…to eliminate the need to bring near boiling milk to the table.

I’ve lived in New Orleans all my life, but I’ve always taken my coffee black with sugar. Rarely with milk or cream…it just tastes weak. NEVER with the powdered stuff.

I went into Morning Call one day a few months back and ordered a coffee…forgot to specify “black” and they brought me a cafe au lait. I went ahead and drank it and was surprised at how different it tasted than coffee with cold milk. I’ve actually gone out of my way to Cafe du Monde a couple of times since then to get cafe au lait.

Note that it’s made with VERY strong coffee & chicory. I tried to duplicate it at home with Maxwell House and it just isn’t the same.

When I was working as a supervisor in a prison, we banned Coffee-Mate powder because if you threw a handful of powder in the air (dust cloud) & lit it with a lighter, it would ignite and cause a flash.

I don’t know if it still does, this was in 1991.

Personally, I know it’s unhealthy & disgusting, but I prefer the taste of it to cold milk or cream, plus it keeps your coffee hotter.

Good thing for me I don’t drink much coffee anyway.

It’s like eating hotdogs, you know it’s bad for you, but man they taste so frikkin good.

So true. The N’awlins version with chicory makes all the difference. I’m surprised how regional the chicory is, it’s hard to find up here.

A properly made latte is heaven. That’s with the proper espresso/milk ratio - not the diluted crap Starbucks slings. There’s a local roaster here - Intelligentsia - that is the place to go for a proper latte. So good.