What reasonable diet substitutes for coffee cream are there?

Question

I need cream in my coffee. I can only stomach black, when it's excellent, properly brewed and so on. But at work I have no conditions for making excellent coffee - I make do with decent brand instant (lyophilized), I still need cream for it, and I need coffee to work.

And recently I went on a diet. I switched from sugar to stevia, and it's acceptable. But I still use cream for the coffee.

Obviously, the cream awfully cuts into my diet efficiency, so I'd like to switch it to some diet-compliant alternatives that will still make the coffee palatable, not a watered down slop, remain low-calorie and hopefully not cost an arm and a leg (even in spite of how rapidly would that reduce my weight) or require overseas shipping (to Poland).

What are my options?

Answer 1

Good job cutting out the sugar, stevia is a better substitute. As for cream, I would try almond milk / soy milk. They go especially well in lattes because when the milk is heated, it gives the coffee a frothier and creamy taste with out the actual heaviness of cream. You can also heat these up a bit create a cafe con leche, Spanish style coffee in the same manner. It is also quite healthier too, especially if you go all-natural/organic.

In larger stores, you can usually find a creamer substitute such as coconut-creamer or soy based products. Walden Farms makes a good line of vegan non fat creamer probably one of the best in terms of low sugar/fat content. I would experiment with what your palate prefers. Note that these may or may not have more fat content than creamer, so it may taste different. Personally I have switched to plain almond milk, and sometimes vanilla almond milk when I want the more sugary taste with a hint of french vanilla cup in the morning.

Answer 2

I can relate to this. I often home roast, and always do pourovers, so I am used to great coffee. Pretty much the only time I put creamer/etc into coffee is bad coffee.

I've had good success with adding hot chocolate mix into bad coffee. You can get fake sugar versions of this, which are zero calorie (and come in convenient little packets), and they will make bad coffee considerably better.

Not sure about Poland, but I suspect you can find something similar there.

Answer 3

You could try skim milk, almond milk, rice milk or coconut milk. They are all lower fat/calorie than coffee creamer and taste great with coffee. I don't particularly like soy milk wtih coffee, it doesn't taste right to me.