- Today we're talking coffee creamers.
I had no idea before researching this video just how big
and, honestly, how kind of scary this world is.
Now - they've become very, very popular recently
I suspect, in part, driven by TikTok
and people making borderline rage-bait videos,
where I think I'm just supposed to be angry at the amount
of sort of syrups and stuff going in, in order to comment
and then drive engagement and get it more views.
But it's been around for a long time.
I mean, I remember in the '80s stirring powdered Coffee Mate
into instant coffee. That, I'm sure, was terrible.
But now,
well look at it!
We're gonna taste our way through and I'm gonna have
at the end of this an informed opinion, 'cause right now
I kind of have an uninformed opinion
and that's bad.
What we'll do is break it into categories.
First up we've got the kind
of sweet and creamy traditional, normal flavored ones.
Then we've got a good selection of vanillas
to taste our way through.
A brief journey to hazelnut
Then to the national cremes.
I think it's creme not cream,
it's written as creme I wanna say cream.
Irish, Italian, those kind of things.
Then some weird flavors, white chocolate raspberry
that sort of a thing.
Ending up in, I think the most exciting category for me.
The branded category,
things like Rice Krispy Treats or the Popped Tarts.
I don't know if it's gonna taste like that
but I'm kind of looking forward to finding out.
I'll taste these blind, I'll know what category I'm in
but I won't know which individual things I'm tasting.
And at the end of which, we'll see which ones are good, bad-
if they're all good or all bad?
I don't know!
We're going to find out.
A quick PSA.
There will be a lot of slurping and tasting in this video
and I know for some of you those noises are very unpleasant.
As a solution
we're gonna abuse YouTube's new multi-language audio setup
and upload an audio track
for this video that just has no slurping in it.
Hopefully YouTube don't take it down
for whatever reason and you can enjoy that
and not have to suffer through the slurps.
Secondly, you might be wondering
about the coffee we're gonna use today.
And that's a good point. If I used
delicious specialty coffee, that would probably taste
really bad.
Don't worry, we've gone the traditional route.
We've got some Folgers for today.
Not the best part of waking up
but I think a suitable coffee for today's video.
And if you're really into the integrity of the testing
every bowl will have 150 mls of coffee
and 7.5 grams of creamer added to it.
That is a half portion, that I think
for a half portion of coffee, should be plenty.
Here we are, the original flavors.
Which one I guess is closest to dairy as an experience.
(slurp)
Whoa, that's sweet.
(slurp)
Maybe a plant-based alternative.
(slurp)
You are the plant-based alternative.
Let's find out what's what.
The classic coffee mate.
I guess this is what I kind of thought it would be.
This is what I grew up around
but the powdered version, super weird.
This, yeah, sweet.
It was the plant-based one.
(slurp)
Quite thin, doesn't have the texture of some of the others.
And then Splenda, did not like that one.
Let's move on.
So for this round we have vanillas.
I'll be looking for complexity in my vanilla
not just that really synthetic vanillin taste that you get
in really cheap vanilla products.
(slurp)
Not a lot going on there.
(slurp)
Bit more sweetness, not aggressive with the vanilla again.
(slurp)
I don't like it. It has the sort of planty taste -
I could be wrong, but there's something
in that that I don't really like.
(slurp)
These two are the weirdest ones. The acidity in this
makes me wonder if it's a plant-based one
because those can sometimes be a touch more acidic
than dairy based ones.
(slurp)
Okay, that is the fuller, more vanilla-vanilla
that I would expect.
I guess you win on that?
Let's see what they are.
Nestle Coffee Mate. Setting a kind of standard
of not being offensive
but also not being very interesting at all.
Did not clock that this one was plant-based.
I'll have a little taste again,
(slurp)
just doesn't taste of very much.
I think me and Splenda just don't get on
in terms of its flavors.
This one was indeed a vegan one
so I guess I was kind of right there.
These are French Vanilla - I don't what French Vanilla is
in the world of flavor
but clearly Vanilla Bean is more interesting.
I guess, to me.
Hazelnut! Should be safe territory.
Does it taste like hazelnut or not?
(slurp)
A little nutty. A little insipid.
(slurp)
Too sweet. Too sweet, too sweet!
(slurp)
Oh, dirty hazelnut, no.
I don't like it.
(slurp)
No!
I'm disappointed. Let's see what they are.
International delight. Less aggressively sweet
than some of the other ones we've had from you.
So a surprise.
The UK one.
Yeah, I just feel like the sweetness is
not quite right there.
I don't like Splenda, it seems.
Me and Splenda, we're just not friends, we're not getting on
Coffee Mate!
Coming in surprisingly bold.
Actually kind of interesting?
I'm not gonna say good.
"Triple churned".
Your ingredients are water, sugar, vegetable oil,
and less than 2% micellar casein.
What are you telling me has been churned here?
Because you churn butter. That's fat.
This is vegetable oil.
Nestle!
You know you've got a stellar reputation otherwise
so I dunno how I'm suddenly surprised at this.
Anyway, let's move on.
So the national cremes, we have Irish and Italian
I wanna say cream, but they don't write it like cream.
(slurp)
It just tastes like sweet.
(slurp)
Sweet and kind of wrong!
(slurp)
You are kind of hazelnutty. What are you then?
You're - I guess you're the odd one out?
What are these?
How is this okay?
You're back to the triple churned.
Italian cream - creme! Whatever.
(slurp)
I don't understand what's happening here.
Are you supposed to taste of cannoli?
I don't get it.
You?
There's a pot of coffee at the end of the rainbow.
and stereotypes, apparently.
I'm not doing the accent, no.
And then you, with your three leaf clovers.
Definitely not lucky. Fair enough.
(slurp)
It's natural and artificial.
I get the artificial.
What are you supposed to taste of?
I don't -
I'm just mad about this whole section.
If you're gonna do this to your coffee
I would have more fun than this.
That's all I'm saying.
This is where the excitement level for me really kicks in.
(surp)
It's just sweet.
It's very boring,
(slurp)
Very artificial.
Tremendous.
(slurp)
You - taste of benzaldehyde,
now don't freak out benzaldehyde's not scary.
It's the primary flavor in almonds and cherries
and it's why almonds and cherries go so well together.
It's a naturally occurring compound
but it's quite easy to synthesize I think.
And so that's the one they'll have called Amaretto
I reckon.
Just call it "almond," cowards!
It's just, it's "almond" - ish.
No.
(slurp)
Weird, don't have much to say about you.
(slurp)
Kind of milky?
(slurp)
It's a bit odd and fruity, weirdly gentle.
(slurp)
Doesn't taste of anything.
(slurp)
No, I don't like you.
Really, really cheap raspberry ice cream.
(slurp)
No, no.
Stop putting mint in things.
Mint chocolate chip ice cream is bad.
That might be a controversial opinion, but it's not.
There's so many better ways to enjoy ice cream
than putting mint in it.
Just mint.
No, get it out of my coffee.
Get it out of my ice cream.
Get it out of just about everything.
Except, you know
I don't know what? Toothpaste? This artificial peppermint -
No, no, no, please no, no.
I need to know what they are.
The caramel.
(slurp)
Ehh, whatever.
(slurp)
Oh, no. No, no, no, no, no.
Amaretto as described.
Just very synthetic-tasting if I'm honest.
They do disclose, I think,
"artificially-flavored".
Tremendous.
Southern butter pecan
or pecan
tasted nothing.
(slurp)
Cafe mocha
(slurp)
You know chocolate syrups
that have no chocolate in them?
They're....
bad.
It tastes like that kind of chocolate
with a dirtier coffee taste in it than was already there, so
Who knows?
What were you?
White chocolate mocha.
You've got nothing to add.
(slurp)
A little bit sour almost.
Not - not great.
Caramel over here.
You at least more interesting?
(slurp)
So subtle, so delicate!
White chocolate raspberry:
not subtle or delicate.
Relatively hilarious
(slurp)
(regret)
Don't know quite why I put it in my coffee
but you know, you can. I'm not tasting
peppermint mocha again.
I don't want to.
I don't like it and I don't want to.
So we come to the final round on our journey,
the round of branded flavors.
Around where science realized they could
but didn't stop to think if they should.
I've had too much coffee and it's always
about this point that I remember I could use a spit cup
and not drink it, but it's too late now.
I'm in. Let's keep going.
I hope something here is ridiculous.
At least, if not delicious, just truly ridiculous.
But I feel like I don't have high hopes.
(slurp)
There's a lot of something, I don't know what.
(slurp)
Very sweet.
(slurp)
Just nothing.
(slurp)
What are you, this is very confusing.
I don't like you.
(slurp)
Could you be the rice krispies?
(slurp)
You could be Snickers.
(slurp)
You're vaguely nutty. Are you hazelnut?
(sighs)
These looked so ridiculous.
I'm so mad.
(slurp)
Hello
(laughs) What are you?
Oh, you are into cinnamon now, right?
Ooh! That's good -
That's good fake cinnamon!
Finally! Something shows up to the party!
(slurp)
(total disdain)
You are the hazelnut.
You are the hazelnut and I don't like you.
So here's the thing, you might say "you want more flavor?
Add more creamer" and that would be a fair comment.
But it's plenty sweet right now.
I don't need any more sweetness in any of these.
I just want more flavor.
If I'm gonna dose something to taste like a Snickers
make it taste like a Snickers!
Where is it?
(slurp)
It is cinnamon.
Hah!
It's a weak cinnamon, Cinnabon.
I don't think you should have licensed this.
I don't think -
I don't think you've let them represent your brand properly.
(slurp)
(considering...)
Neh.
(slurp)
(configuring)
That does not taste like a Twix!
I understand now why it's limited time only.
Pop tarts.
(slurp)
I feel none of the delight that people might feel when
they eat a popped tart when drinking this here.
Almond joy: chocolate, coconut and almond.
(slurp)
Kind of sour almost.
Yeah, there's a sort of
like artificial, offensive laundry detergent
coconut present in this,
but none of the joy
and none of the almonds.
Just cheap coconut and slight sourness.
Rice Krispy treats!!
[thud]
up next.
Let's have a go at you again.
(slurp)
It's time to go straight.
I know that the packaged rice krispy treats don't taste
like homemade ones, even slightly -
they have a real synthetic vibe.
I'm hoping for that.
Times 10.
(Tastes a mouthful)
(laughing)
(whispers) So sweet!
(more laughing) So bad.
(more and more laughter)
Oh no, that's not good for you.
(chuckles)
Ohh.
Mmh.
Do you know? It's not good.
It's very sweet. Unsurprisingly.
Interesting how it made...
I don't know what that taste is!
It's not Rice Krispies.
It's the kind of marshmallowy oddness.
That was quite fun.
Okay, Snickers.
(slurp)
I'm gonna have a little taste of a Snickers one.
(spoon taste)
Ha ha ha ha ha!
Oh god, that's so sweet.
Okay, disappointing.
Sweet, a little tang.
Oddly a little acidity in there.
Lacking the true joy of the peanut though, if I'm honest.
Hershey's.
(small slurp)
Yeah. Nothing is good.
Nothing is good here.
I'm not gonna taste this.
Oh! This was the cinnamon vanilla creme!
Now we put cinnamon in here
because there was already two cinnamons on the table
and we thought we'd add a third for comparison.
If you are into cinnamon, this one at least turns up.
(slurp)
It's properly like
big red cinnamon, like the very
kind of floral cinnamon,
the top end cassia bark style cinnamon.
I don't hate it.
At least it's got some character to it.
Friends Manhattan, hazelnut mocha.
They clearly couldn't afford to license the faces
of anyone from Friends.
I think that's hilarious,
just the brand 'Friends'.
That's very funny to me.
Does it taste good?
(slurp)
Oh no, no, no.
It's the bad hazelnut back again.
It's no better than any of the other hazelnuts.
Pretty disappointing.
I had high hopes.
You know, I enjoy a Snickers.
I like a Twix, who doesn't like a Twix.
I did not like them as a coffee creamer.
I did not have a good time.
And that feels disappointing.
I guess it's time for a big wrap up
and to try and pick my single favorite
from the whole day if one of those even exists.
Now I'm conscious that lots of people
like creamers and I've just been a bit disappointed
about just about everything I've tried
in what were like 30, 35 different coffee creamers today.
That's a lot of different things.
I think the thing that surprises me throughout is the lack
of intensity of flavors with the flavored stuff.
The more kind of dairy ish ones,
I get it.
If you want some sort of shelf stable dairy alternative
'cause you use 15 mls once a day, every other day
or something like that, you're not gonna buy milk or cream.
Sure, I guess I get it? I don't know.
The very sweet ones, the very flavored ones:
I just had higher hopes.
I thought they would turn up
with a bit more presence and character than they did.
And certainly for my palette,
which is an important distinction,
I don't wanna add so much in to get enough flavor
because it would just be too too sweet, like crazy sweet.
I mean, these things are literally about a third sugar.
So I'm not trying to add much, you know
before it's just overwhelming.
If I had to pick two favorites from the day
it would be the Rice Krispy treats
for being identifiably Rice Krispy treats, and also
ridiculous.
I'm not sure really I should include them
because I don't think I feel good about consuming this.
But it was very funny.
And then this one, the cinnamon vanilla creme,
at least it turned up.
At least it said "cinnamon!"
and tasted identifiably obviously of cinnamon in a
in a not pleasant way, but in a potent way.
And I suppose if you really like cinnamon - points for that.
It does make me feel
like could you make your own better versions of these?
Do you know what I mean?
Like homemade syrups taste better than commercial syrups.
I don't how you'd make homemade creamer.
If you want me to find out
let me know in the comments down below.
Like, should I investigate how to make shelf
stable delicious coffee creamer at home?
Or is that just an absurd thing to even consider?
Did I miss one out?
Like we worked really hard to source as many
of these as we could to have a broad spectrum tasting
but is there an amazing one out there that we overlooked?
Is this just a weird thing for me to have done a tasting of?
I don't know.
I'd love to hear your thoughts down on the comments below.
But for now I wanna say thank you so much for watching.
I hope you have a great day.