I can understand why people would want to add milk to coffee, but coffee whitener isn’t the same thing. Is coffee whitener’s only purpose to “whiten” coffee, or what?
They are a non-dairy substitute for cream and milk. They can’t be called any variation of “cream” or “milk” so several variations of naming have come around - non-dairy creamer is used and permitted some places (that’s the term I’m most familiar with), but maybe not in Canada, so the even blander “coffee whitener” has to be used.
ETA: No, “creamer” is not a variation of “cream” - any more than “chocolatey coating” means the outside is chocolate. The grocery is full of such coy bypasses allowed by the FDA and USDA. They can’t call this stuff “powdered cream” or “miracle milk” or such direct terms.
The goal is to replicate the flavor and mouth feel of adding milk or cream to coffee, without using milk or cream. The same way artificial sweeteners are intending to replicate the taste of sugar in coffee without using sugar.
They don’t really taste the same, but they are generally passable, and often have their own unique taste that some folks prefer over the real thing.
if you didn’t then it would look like manure tea (not the other hot beverage).
it does have a taste that some people like that covers some bitterness without the milk consequences.
Oh, I see.
I usually drink my coffee black, and haven’t tried coffee whitener.
It’s a highly flammable substance that produces somegreat flame effects. It never occurred to me that people put that stuff in coffee, but I suppose anything added to coffee would improve the flavor. Better to ask why anyone would drink coffee in the first place.
Taste is a funny thing. I’m told some people actually like cilantro. Coffee, on the other hand, is drunk by many because it tastes great and for the caffeine.
BTW, many combustible powdered substances (black pepper, fine sawdust, powdered sugar, lycopodium spores) will burn much like the powdered creamer stuff.
Another reason some people use Coffee Whitener is Kosher considerations – an observant Jew will not take milk in their coffee within something like 6* hours of consuming meat.
- 6 hours for Orthodox follow-the-book Jews. May be less for some other branches. Personally I have no problem sipping milk in my coffee while eating a bacon cheeseburger, so what do I know…?
Coffee looks nice, makes me feel good, and smells wonderful.
But coffee tastes like shit. People will add ANYTHING to kill the taste.
They are also useful as a milk substitute when making drinks in the absence of a fridge. It’s a lot easier to carry around powdered stuff than a liquid which goes off.
Personally speaking, I keep a box of the stuff in the cupboard as backup for the occasions when I run out of milk. Not as nice as real milk, not as bad as drinking it black.
I’ve had fresh half-and-half curdle when poured into a hot cop of coffee from a French press. When I don’t want to wait for the coffee to cool down, I use non-dairy creamer.
(From RoboCop II, IIRC) “So what’s it like to be a rocket scientist?”
Speaking as someone who never adds artificial or real cream/milk to coffee (just a little sugar, thanks), I believe there is no special virtue associated with taking your coffee black.
For all I care, you can add yogurt, strawberry jam, chocolate or bacon to your coffee if it makes it more palatable.
Or cilantro. Hey, I could be the first to market “salsa coffee”.
I understand coffee whitener. What I don’t understand is fat-free half-and-half. What is it half of? And what is the other half?
I can only think you are doing it wrong. The coffee I make definitely does not taste like shit.
Even high-quality coffee tastes very bitter to the untrained palate. No person anywhere, ever, has liked coffee the first time they tasted it.
Mmmmm…coffee. You know, I think I’ll go make myself a cup right now – with hazelnut creamer. Yum!
(And Annie, it’s not because “it tastes like shit”. It’s because it’s delicious that way! The bittersweetness is just divine)
Chemicals. Imitation fat.
I present one data point to the contrary. I started off stealing sips of my mother’s coffee with a teaspoon and can’t recollect ever not liking the taste. She liked it very hot, very strong and very black, so it wasn’t some pansy-ass candy coffee thing, either.
Bitterness has little to do with quality. It has to do with the source of the beans, the roast and the brew. There are inexpensive medium-roast Colombian beans that are more flavorless than bitter.