Coffee Trials

I think I discovered something that millions of other people already knew. It has to do with coffee. I require coffee every morning. If I can't get coffee, it's bad. There have been times when I'm stranded somewhere like a scary hotel or camping in the woods and the coffee options are lacking (though I've come to embrace gritty camp coffee). In these situations, I try to make do with diet coke or hot tea. It just doesn't do it for me though.

So the deal with coffee is that I used to drink Coffeemate Fat Free Hazelnut Creamer in my coffee. (Not the powdery kinds...that's just gross.) It's all my dad's fault. He got me hooked on it when I was in high school. It was simply the way coffee was handled in my house, and I knew nothing else. For a couple years of college, I continued with the flavored creamer. Then I met this guy who was a coffee snob. How could I EVER put that non-dairy stuff in my coffee? I fell for it. I started using sugar and plain creamer. Then, I realized that guy was kind of an idiot and went back to hazelnut creamer because have you tasted it??? It's GOOD! Just like my dad taught me. A few years ago, I got hooked on reading labels. If something has partially hydrogenated anything in it, I began to freak out and not consume it anymore. Hazelnut creamer definitely does have partially hydrogenated soybean oil. Also around this time, I also decided to go caffeine free and quit drinking coffee all together for like a year and a half. Then I regained all clarity and am back to needing coffee in order to function. What was I thinking? So, to avoid the gross chemicals that will cause heart disease (or at least so I think), I started trying other stuff and eventually settled on Splenda and Land O Lakes fat free half and half. Yum. This was it. Then, just a few weeks ago, in three or four different instances I overheard different people carrying on about how terrible Splenda was because of the chemicals. Ahhh! So, for a week I used sugar instead of Splenda. Every time I brought the spoon of sugar to my coffee cup I pictured those diagrams that show how many tablespoons of sugar are in some terrible food or drink. You know, the spoons that have a heap of sugar all stacked up to scare you away. So, I gave the sugar heaps up and found International Delight creamer which is safe-ish. After two days, I decided that was gross too. At this point I thought that coffee was just going to become one more lack luster functional thing rather than something I love and look forward to. Then, it hit me. SOY MILK! Last weekend, I picked up some Silk Very Vanilla Soymilk. That's the answer. I know I've overheard thousands of people at Starbucks order stuff with soymilk. I've never wanted to do that because I like regular milk, but vanilla soymilk is sweet AND it has some heart-healthy benefits. Plus a half gallon lasts a while when you only use a little. So, problem solved. Whew...I was getting worried!

By the way, I'm very aware that I could just drink my coffee black, but really? Where's the fun in that!?