Am I the only person on earth who puts NONFAT DRY SKIM MILK in her [very strong] coffee?? That’s my preference. It’s delicious. However, if in need of coffee in other situations, I will drink other substitutes.
Skim milk is definately not something one should offer guests with their coffee.
Even 2% milk in coffee is pretty bad, but almost passable in a pinch.
Half and Half is the best for coffee IMHO, but whole milk is okay too.
In the Netherlands grocery stores sell something called “koffiemelk” (“coffee milk”, of course). It’s tan rather than white. I think that’s to make the color of the final beverage a perfect shade of golden brown.
Anyway-- koffiemelk is just evaporated milk. Try it sometime. I think it’s rather good. I keep a small can of it in the cupboard for emergencies. (like when there’s only skim milk in the fridge!)
Kinsey, unless it’s specifically a “coffe party,” I hardly think a hostess is at all required to provide all possible accoutrements for her guests coffee. You want something your host doesn’t have? Cope.
Zette, I confess to being fairly repulsed. No offense, but I cannot imagine choosing ultra-pasteurized, ultra-homogenized creamer over just plain black coffee in absence of cream. But that’s just me–I had a bad experience with creamer once.
I’ll have to disagree. Most people who drink coffee in their homes “make fresh coffee every morning”, myself included. I like skim milk alot as a standalone beverage, but ye gods! not in my coffee!
The lightness in a proper light-and-sweet cup of coffee is from the milkfat present in the milk/h-n-h/cream. Skim milk is essentially like adding a bit of flavored water. And man, I can’t stand skim milk in coffee.
If I seem to be getting a little worked up, its because the other day I woke up only to realize that we were out of half-n-half, and I had to resort to the skim.
Couldn’t imagine putting skim milk in my coffee. Brandy, and/or Kahlua, maybe. I normally buy half and half, or heavy cream, if serving coffee to guests. Also keep some of that powdered non-dairy stuff on hand for the lactose intolerant.
Tea is always available as well. The cocoa sounds like a good idea. I’ll add that to the bill of fare at the next gathering.
All that said, I have a question. Why does anyone buy skim milk? Where I shop, it is about the same price as whole milk. Why not buy a half pint of whole milk and dilute it with a gallon of water?
Nope. If coffee is “on the menu,” then the host should provide the condiments that go with it. If burgers are on the menu, then the host should provide appropriate condiments to go with them. I may not like ketchup on my burger*, but I can expect that many of my guests will want ketchup, so I should get some.
In other words, if the hostess is expecting to serve the coffee, she should provide whole milk and sugar, as many/most guests like whole milk and/or sugar in their coffee. Any catered event that includes coffee will have whole milk and sugar available, at a minimum. Why? Because that is what people like.
Now, if it is a party where coffee is not “on the menu,” then the hostess can’t be expected to have the accoutrements on hand. For example, if I threw a “party” party–beer and more beer and maybe some chips and dip–then I wouldn’t expect to be serving coffee. If a guest asked, I’d be more than happy to brew up a pot, but I may only have 2% in the fridge.
*purely hypothetical. I loooove ketchup.
If you’re somebody who doesn’t drink a lot of milk but can’t stomach the idea of putting water in their Cheerios, skim milk might be a better choice simply because it lasts so much longer without going bad. And diluting milk would alter a lot more than just the fat content- it would reduce the amount of calcium and various vitamins per serving. Plus it would taste really bad.
I agree. We have cookouts quite a bit over the summer. Just simple burgers-and-dogs kind of fare. I hate relish, but I make damn sure I have some on hand for the relish-lovers.
Same as with this event. It was an afternoon wedding shower luncheon. Finger sandwiches, fruit salad, green salad, stuff like that. It is expected that coffee will be served. Right? Also, she had an amazing variety of sodas (Coke, Caffeine-free Coke, Diet Coke, Caffeine-free Diet Coke, Sprite, Diet Sprite, and more) plus several types of wine.
My rant wasn’t specifically directed at this woman; she just bore the brunt of it since it was the most recent event. It’s happened before; you’re at someone’s house, you’re offered coffee, and all they have is skim. I would more than likely decline before having skim milk in my coffee.
Worse yet is when someone offers coffee (at some sort of party-type event, not just spur-of-the-moment) and they have no sweetener of any kind, in addition to having no milk/cream/skim/whatever.
:shrug:
OK, I guess. Since I drink mine black, next time y’all come over I’ll just not offer you any at all.
You know, when I initially read the OP, my knee-jerk reaction was, “Hey, you’re a guest, you don’t have the right to complain about what’s provided! You should be thankful they have coffee at all!”
Then I thought about it some more and realized the OP is right. It is incredibly annoying to go to an event and be offered coffee with no sweeteners available, or go to a barbecue where only diet pop is available. I hate that! Hate it! I strongly dislike the taste of artificial sweeteners, so on occasion when this has happened, I wind up drinking tap water. It’s just annoying.
If I were going to offer coffee at an event, I’d probably put out sugar, artificial sweeteners, and either half and half or milk. Probably both half and half and milk, and the milk would probably be 2%, just because that’s what most of the people I know drink. It would not occur to me to put out only skim, unless as someone stated earlier, I hadn’t planned to offer coffee, and just brewed up a pot on the spur of the moment and only had skim in the house. The polite thing to do is to offer the most common condiments, and 2% or whole milk are definitely the most common. I don’t think I’m wrong in assuming that those of you who are anti-skim would not have any problem with 2%… am I?
My mom threw a baby shower for me last weekend, and she made sure to get a couple of bottles of diet pop as well as the regular stuff, even though nobody in our house drinks diet. She did it just in case some of the party guests didn’t want to/couldn’t drink regular pop. It’s just polite.
When I have guests over, I make sure I have everything I need for coffee. This includes freshly made coffee, clean cups and spoons, sugar, sweetener, cream and the powdered shit. I never assume my guests would prefer saving a few calories over having coffee to their preference. That’s just rude.
Yes, my mother raised me right 
Robin
Skim milk = water mixed with chalk dust.
Skim milk in coffee = surefire trip to Hell.
I have had my coffee and tea with heavy cream (or ½ & ½ at the very least) all my life. I just found out that my cholesterol is 171 out of 239 (allowable). So phbbbbbt to all you “eeewwww, high fat food” freaks. If you don’t like or can’t have dairy, that’s fine but don’t whine to me about calories. I mean, we’re talking about our morning’s wakeup call. Do you really want chalky water in your brew?
from Feynn:
PERCOLATER!!!
Until now, I didn’t believe in coffee satan.
brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!
From the* University of California, Berkeley Wellness Letter*, abstracted in the December 2001 issue of Muscle & Fitness:
A cafe mocha “grande” (16 ounces) made with whole milk at Starbucks has almost 420 calories and 23 grams of mostly saturated fat. Even a “tall” cafe latte (12 ounces) containing whole milk has 200 calories and 10 grams of fat. If you ask for nonfat milk, though, you’ll get just 1 gram of fat and avoid about 100 calories.
Something to think about.
Actually, skim milk isn’t bad with coffee if you heat the milk, make strong coffee and pour them together in equal parts. Granted, this would be even better with whole milk.
I can’t drink coffee in the mornings anymore though, for reasons that would be TMI. Now I drink tea with soymilk. How scary is that?
I find it inexcusable for any host to offer coffee without also offering powdered milk and soymilk.
oh dear, my parents and I are definitely among these soulless people that offer nothing but skim milk in tea and coffee!!!
we’re just health freaks. and i’ve become used to the taste of skim milk in coffee and look longingly at the whole milk and or half/half but usually refrain…love my health more.
anyway, the point is that for us calorie conscious health freaks (and she sounds like one) sometimes we just FORGET. my parents throw kind of elaborate parties and in the midst of making sure that your fish curries and chicken tikka masalas are perfectly seasoned and whatnot the freaking cream just slips our mind. but seeing as maybe you are one of the disgruntled guests writing in anonymously i personally pledge not to disgruntle you and your cream swilling brethren in the future.
Skim milk, Cream, powdered crap, blah blah blah… Sick bastards. If you don’t like the taste of coffee, drink chocolate milk. It’s like drinking beer with lime, Scotch with soda, rum with coke, iced tea with sugar, tequila with salt, root beer with ice, whiskey with “sour” or seven-up, beer with salt, wine with ice (if you are really pathetic) or Hot Chocolate without marshmallows.
Just have foreplay with no sex. Same thing. Drink it the way it was intended. Black as sin and strong enough to make you double up in the morning on the throne after one cup.
Damn “social coffee drinkers”…
Since we’re all sharing our coffee-drinking loves, mine is that weird edible-oil powdered cream-like substance (also known as CoffeeMate). I’ll take that in my coffee (decaf, since I lost my tolerance for caffiene :() over any form of real milk or cream. Apparently, it’s a genetic aberration - my mom is the same way.
ignatzmouse - Percolator just seemed to fit the sermon and I happen to own an antique pyrex perc that used to make a terrific cup of coffee. I need new innards as there was a little accident involving the perc and my daughter.
For anyone who doen’t know what the hell I’m talking about the old pyrex perc had a glass stem and basket which are extremely fragile and all too easily broken.