I am very much a black coffee person, that said, once in a while I wouldn’t mind flavor of some sort in my coffee, I see these people with there French Vanilla, or cinnamon coffee creamer and I will admit I get a bit jealous.
I am working on getting in shape, other than round, and on a budget, so I have been toying with the idea of trying a protein powder or something similar as creamer.
I was hoping I could get some alternative ideas for coffee creamer here. I am looking for low calorie, and ideally something with protein. Does anyone have an idea?
This might be an unpopular opinion but as someone who has tried protein powders, shakes and all kinds of additions, it’s just not worth it. Flavored creamer is 30-35 calories for a tablespoon. Coffee is a joy, don’t take that away from yourself. Cut somewhere else, this ain’t it.
You can try sugar free syrups or creamers, spice blends like cinnamon and cardamom as others have suggested, or flavored coffee beans. Creamer won’t have much protein to speak of unless you’re using a dense protein shake, at that point it will just taste worse and you’ll rob yourself of that little joy.
You may have to make the same mistakes I’ve made, hell maybe you’ll enjoy protein shakes in your coffee. But what it came down to for me was, I wasn’t finishing it because it was disgusting. A tbsp of oatmilk creamer “the oatmeal cookie one” with a nice coffee roast is bomb, and brings the delight and the go (and the go!) that I needed to start my day right. I use an Aeropress, it makes for a great and rapid brew, far better than drip for me, and less cleanup.
Congratulations on your commitment to fitness, it all starts with little thoughtful changes like this one. Best of luck, stranger!
Thank you for this, I have always been a person that has learned from other’s mistakes, and the comments here have sufficiently put me off the idea of powders. I have been toying with the Idea of making my own. I like the idea of choosing the ingredients and getting to experiment some. I like some flavors that are not year round so I will be able to mix them when I want them too so big bonus.
Also thanks for the encouragement, I am well on my way in the last 8 years I have gone from ~480+ to 260 now I need some muscle 💪
That is insane progress! Keep it up, and I hope you come up with something yummy. 😊
I keep it black, but I get flavored coffee. This is a good time to find fun flavors. Fall flavors will be on sale, and christmas flavors are coming out. I’ve got a cream brulee and caramel macchiato from aldi (they also have a coffee advent calendar coming out) and a maple I picked up from food lion. You’re likely to see lots of mocha, peppermint, and gingerbread out now.
I will have to cost breakdown on getting flavored beans instead of flavoring the final product. This is a wonderful idea.
Look at the ingredients of a decent coffee creamer you’ll notice that it says milk and heavy cream.
So in essence coffee creamer is really just half and half. There are cheaper coffee creamers that will have some sort of plant based oil instead of heavy cream. They might not even contain any milk.
To make your own cinnamon creamer you just need half and half, ground cinnamon and some sugar.
To make a mocha creamer you need half and half, cocoa powered and sugar.
To make vanilla creamer, it’s vanilla extract, half an half and sugar.
To make a chai creamer, it’s half and half, ground cardamom, ground allspice, ground nutmeg, ground cinnamon, ground cloves, ground ginger and sugar.
To make pumpkin spice it’s half and half, ground cinnamon, ground ginger, ground nutmeg, ground allspice, ground cloves and sugar.
Caramel creamer is just half and half and caramel. Since caramel is mostly sugar you probably don’t need to add any.
If you find other flavorings you can find real extracts or the actual spices instead of preprocessed creamers.
A teaspoon of brown sugar is less than 20 calories. Milk and cream both have a little protein.
All of that, I want all of that and there is plenty there for some experiments, thanks, sometimes my brain goes into black and white mode and I forget to think of parts instead of whole.
I think it’s like that for a lot of people. I never really thought about all of the parts until I started getting into cooking.
When you realize what things are, it’s like finally waking up.
I can’t imagine anything that you could add to coffee and get significant protein without your drink turning into a coffee flavored beverage. With most protein powder you need a scoop to get about 25g which has 150 calories. Nothing wrong with trying it though, you just may like it.
I like the thought, I am really not going for significant protein, just not empty calories. Most creamers are just some cream and majority sugar, I am looking to go for a more benefit, or bang for your buck if you will 😆
Cardamom in black coffee is amazing. Just drop like 5 pods in to the French press.
Cinnamon or nutmeg work too. A little grated citrus rind. If you go to a liquor store you can usually find a range of flavoured bitters that can have a few drops added to a cup.
This would give me a great reason to get out my press, most mornings I use a drip (out of laziness) but I have a press and I love the thing, I should use it more.
I actually really like putting just some cinnamon in my coffee, especially around this time of year.
But yeah I don’t know of anything that would go well in coffee in terms of protein. The powder would thicken it up far too much I imagine….maybe it would work better the other way, if you made a protein shake with coffee as a flavor
That was another factor I hadn’t accounted for, thickness, that could get dangerous lol
On keto, I drank lattes/cold brew coffee made with only heavy cream. Obviously, that’s a bit extreme, so now I do iced breve lattes, which is a normal latte, but with half and half instead of milk. Very flavorful and rich, adds some protein, and doesn’t involve nasty fake flavors.
Would this be the same hot? I am not a cold brew person myself.
Yes, using half and half just makes it richer. I can sip on one for a few hours because it’s filling.
I’ve tried vanilla protein powder in coffee in the past and my experience it was really awful, mind you I tried frothing it.
Why not add some cold water and vanilla essence, or almond milk and vanilla essence?
I currently just do a black coffee, hot water, and ice and keep the protein powder for after exercise.Yeah, this was not my best idea, but it was a good place to start lol 😁
There are plenty of sugar free creamer varieties out there, International Delight makes some and I’ve seen brands all over the internet.
I have never been too keen on sugar free, some of the sugar substitutes are too much for me, there is someone here that gave a bunch of recipes, I may try my hand at making my own, then I could use monk fruit or something like that.
As a disclaimer, I have never used this product and don’t know if it’s any good.
But I’ve heard Walden Farms mentioned as a good source of low calorie flavor options for creamer/syrups that you may be interested in trying.
I will look this up, thanks.
I started using Lakanto sweetener in my coffee. You add a splash of fat free milk or hazelnut sugar free syrup. I can’t tell that I’m drinking a sugar substitute.
I haven’t heard of that one yet I will look into it. Thanks for the suggestion.
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I don’t have a solution for the protein powder dilemma, but fyi, as far as coffee creamers go, vanilla bean is FAR superior to french vanilla.
