Creamer for My Morning Cuppa Joe

I'm one of those people who has had a morning cuppa joe (or two) for most of my adult life.  I think I was 18 when I first started drinking coffee and I'm sure I didn't care for it all that much, but acquired a taste for it.  I drink my coffee with creamer, no sugar. I've had my morning cuppa joe the same way always.  I can't remember drinking it any other way, although I may have put sugar in it when I first started drinking it, but I really don't think so.  Sugar in regular coffee tastes absolutely horrible to me.  I can't drink the coffee.  However, I do put sugar or a sweetener in flavored coffee.  I have one called Cinnamon Pastry by Timothy's, and it's delightful with some creamer and a sprinkling of sweetener.

I stopped brewing "pots" of coffee a couple of years ago when the Keurig coffee pot came onto the scene.  I started buying K-Cups, but I stopped buying them because they are not recyclable.  (The ones you see in the picture are some I bought previously and am just now trying to use up.)  Now, I use either an EZ Cup (it's brown and next to the filters), which requires a little filter, or the Solofill Cup (it's red and to the right), which has a wire mesh filter.  I like the coffee slightly better with the EZ Cup, but the filters are expensive, whereas the Solofill doesn't require any additional equipment but leaves a small amount of sediment (not grounds, but sediment) in the cup.  I included a link for the Solofill Cup.  The EZ Cup can be purchased at a variety of online vendors and now, Sam's Club apparently.  The filters are about $5 for 50, which makes the EZ Cup slightly less desirable because it has an ongoing cost associated with it.

All of that aside, one of my biggest challenges when adopting a vegan diet was my coffee creamer.  I tried drinking coffee black, but it just didn't have the same taste for me.  Creamer adds, well, a certain creaminess to coffee.  Basically, it softens the edge of coffee. 

I tried soy creamers and did not care for them.  I tried regular almond milk, soy milk, and coconut milk. Nope! Didn't work. Then, Noelle from An Opera Singer in the Kitchen suggested I try SO Delicious Coconut Milk Creamer.  VOILA!  I found what I'd been looking for.  It tastes remarkably like the dairy creamer I had been using.  I have been hooked on SO Delicious ever since.  I cannot be without it.  

SO Delicious is 10 calories per serving for the original flavor, which is the only one I buy.  A serving is 3 teaspoons.  See the little measuring cup next to it?  I actually use that to measure my SO Delicious for each cup.  I know that sounds funny, but I found I was using more than 3 teaspoons and it really didn't change the flavor more, so I decided to just use the cup to measure it.  (It's one of those cups from children's pain relievers, and I have MANY of those cups from when my sons were growing up.)

SO Delicious is a little pricier when compared to soy creamer.  It's $2.39 a carton at Whole Foods and as high as $3.39 a carton at my local health food store (what a racket!).  I usually buy two to three cartons when I hit Whole Foods as the expiration date is a good month away from the date I purchase it.  BUT, if I run out, I will purchase it from the health food store as Whole Foods is 30 miles away by my job and I'm not driving 30 miles to save $1.  I just make sure to pick some more up the next day I work.

So, my tip for today is a GREAT vegan coffee creamer for anyone who is trying to become vegan or just wants to cut out dairy products.  This is definitely one product I cannot do without.