Coffee Panic! Where is the Cream and Brown Sugar?

April 2, 2022 /

All about the Creamy Goodness

My mom used to tell me that the creamer was for grown ups and I’d see her put some in her cup of coffee. I was so curious that I dipped my finger into the powder mix. Oh wow! It was so yummy!

From then on, I’d get some powdered non-dairy creamer and eat it. Mixing it with Milo chocolate powder, it became a yummy powdery snack, which melts in the mouth!

Of course, there came an age when I couldn’t just keep eating those powdery treats alone. Since I didn’t see grown up’s eating the powdery cream solo, I knew I’d look weird or out of place enjoying my childhood creamy treat.

Let's Have Creamy Coffee

When I was old enough, I discovered that I can still enjoy the non-dairy creamer without raising eyebrows if I mix it with the popular warm drink. An added bonus was feeling all grown up when drinking coffee. Well, by Gen X standards, early twenties is when we were “old enough” to drink coffee! So different from the Starbucks generation a.k.a. younger generation (yes…I’m THAT old haha).

Yes, my initial coffee adventure was all about having the non-dairy creamer. My friends would call my coffee mixture, “cream with a little coffee”!

Here is a side note: I am NOT alone! I even chanced upon this blogger, Dorothy who is in love with creamer too! Her website is called Crazy for Crust. She even has a TON of recipes that use creamer! It talks about 30 crazy creamer recipes and also some non-coffee based drinks that use creamer yum yum yum! I am thinking about making some of her concoctions too! Check out her article — and the website itself!

What is "REAL" coffee?

That cream with coffee concoction went on for a while until I started observing people drinking it black, talking about beans and brewing.
Hmmm, I thought to myself, there must be something about this bitter drink that had people talk about which beans are good and which cafes serve “real” coffee.

Inflight Brewing

My first actual brewing method was to open a coffee pack and put it in filter basket in flight, as a flight attendant. And all I can say is WOW. I went from drinking instant coffee with lots of powdered cream to discovering the heavenly aroma of a fresh brew.

I didn’t even know there would be a significant difference until I tried it. My mom used to brew but I was too wrapped up in my own world to notice.

Oh well, just like most experiences in life, you wouldn’t really know if you’d like it or not, until you try it. And in this instance, the aroma and the interesting play of bitter, fruity, nutty tastes were more than enough to convince me that coffee can offer me more than my perfect excuse to drink cream.

To Each His Own!

I suppose asking what “real” coffee is and then talking about brewing will give the impression that to me, “real” coffee is freshly brewed. Anything else, is “artificial.”

That’s not exactly what I meant. I just meant literally the actual beans to cup (grind and brew) way is what I like the most.

But I will say that if you are curious about coffee, the best way for you to find out is to try all four basic ways people have their coffee:

instant 3 in 1 (where you have coffee, cream and sugar all formulated for you),
instant coffee (coffee extract is dried and turned into small pieces or powder form) which you pour into hot water, mix cream and/or sugar to your liking,

ground coffee (which you brew) and lastly,

beans which you grind then brew.