So, most places I go for coffee will offer three dairy lighteners for coffee – skim milk, soy milk, and half-and-half.
What’s up with half-and-half? Why not whole milk or cream?
Because carrying 90 variations of dairy and dairy subs is a pain and expensive. Light cream (half and half) is fine for most people who like rich coffee, and you can mix half-and-half and skim to approximate whole milk.
What Claire Beauchamp said, with the addition that cream tends to get clotted pretty quickly, or can be overly thick and hard to blend in with coffee. I’ve done extensive experiments in this field; half-and-half is the best of all worlds when it comes to coffee additions.
Well, at least until you get to liquor. 
I’ll note that there’s collateral damage for tea drinkers, because any kind of cream in tea = yuck. Tea wants milk.
Since when? I put half and half in my tea all the time, and have used cream in a pinch.
bleagh
I LIKE cream in my tea. I’ll put milk in if I don’t have cream, but I vastly prefer cream.
If I’m gonna upset my belly by drinking coffee, I want cream in that, too.
You can get away with ultra-pasteurizing half and half. You can’t with whole milk, and, as someone already mentioned, cream clots quickly. Oh, and people freak out over non-dairy.
Ah-hah. That makes sense.
I see what you did there: this may be the only cafe question I’ve seen in Cafe Society.
And, I love half-and-half (try a splash on your cereal…mmm), but it seems that in London, it’s a no-show in cafes–easier to get steamed milk in your coffee.
I wondered if anyone would notice.
How do Americans survive overseas? Here it’s milk or nothing, ditto England.
Where’s “here”?
They don’t have cream in England? :dubious:
I’m hardly an expert, but I believe there’s a number of different types of cream typically available in England - single cream, whipping cream, etc. I’d go for the lowest fat percentage and mix with milk if necessary. It’d be around the same thing as half and half.
The Dibster’s only been about the place for ten years and hardly posts at all, so you may have missed that he’s from South Africa.
Thanks for the info. I’m not so sure I’m grateful for the sarcasm. Am I expected to remember everyone’s location just in case they make a post referring to it obliquely?
No, it’s just that I’m an asshole.
I don’t think anyone has claimed that there is no cream in all of England, just that it’s not customarily made available to people buying a cup of coffee.
Pace Mr Dibble, but many outlets in England serve up whitener in sealed single servings, and cream or half cream are by no means unusual in that case.
Starbucks offers whole milk as one of its choices, doesn’t it? As does Au Bon Pain. Maybe it’s more prevalent among the larger chains, perhaps because they go through a larger volume of milk.