Coffee Creamer Usually Contains No Cream

Read the label — the dairy left a while ago.

Reach for the "creamer" and you'd expect, well, cream. Most of the popular ones parted ways with dairy long ago.

What's actually in there

Many creamers are water, sugar, and oil — held together with emulsifiers and "natural flavors," tinted and thickened to look and pour like cream. Some "non-dairy" powders are mostly corn syrup solids and hydrogenated oil.

The flavored ones are dessert

A flavored creamer can add a surprising amount of sugar to every cup — and most people use more than one splash, several times a day. It adds up fast.

The move

If you want cream, buy cream (or milk). If you like the flavored ones, treat them like the sweet treat they are, and check the sugar per serving — then be honest about how many "servings" you actually pour.

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