I love half and half in my coffee. It makes the coffee so rich and creamy but, I'm trying to wean us off of dairy so I need an alternative. I don't want to go the coffee mate route with all the HFCS and other chemicals - I'd love to find a natural alternative but I've tried the one and only non dairy creamer I've found - it's some sort of soy creamer but it's so watery and has a terrible taste.
Does anyone know of any dairy alternatives out there that have a similiar consistancy to half and half?
Silk has ABSOLUTELY WONDERFUL soy creamer. I use the french vanilla kind because it's all they offer in good ol' sioux falls, sd but they have all different flavors of it
Originally Posted by lindsayjean
Silk has ABSOLUTELY WONDERFUL soy creamer. I use the french vanilla kind because it's all they offer in good ol' sioux falls, sd but they have all different flavors of it
dh cant live without his morning cup of coffee. i second the silk creamer. i hate coffee and it makes me sick, so i can just give you dh's recommendations. his favorite is the french vanilla. the hazelnut is also good too. there's also a plain flavor, but i'd probably go for french vanilla or hazelnut. i'm pretty sure all of silk's products are organic or at least made from organic soybeans (so mostly organic.) http://www.silksoymilk.com/Products/SilkCreamer.aspx
haha, and when we dont have silk creamer, dh is very content to put silk chocolate soymilk in his coffee. (he definately likes his sweet stuff!)
) But Silk creamer was the absolute best. I'd put it in tea, coffee, and hot chocolate and I could hardly tell the difference! I always used the flavored ones--hazelnut and vanilla.
I have tried coconut milk before, and it was alright. I do prefer silk, too, but on occassion when we have run out of silk, coconut has been a good substitute. I would not want to use it daily, though, because it made my coffee kind of oily and it actually seemed more acidic.
yea, regular soy milk so doesn't work. silk creamer is good, but i could only ever find original and french vanilla when i wanted hazelnut. now i can't find any non-dairy creamers. blech.
I use Silk plain creamer. The wildwood one is ok, too. I hate the taste of sweetness in my coffee, but need milk in it and the Silk is the best substitute I've found. I have grown quite used to it!
I use Silk, Kirkland, or Westsoy soymilk. Some brands of soymilk don't work well in coffee, and Westsoy is kind of pushing it, but Silk and Kirkland (which is generic Costco Silk) work just fine.
I bought the vanilla, hazelnut and plain silk creamers and the plain is definitely the creamiest. The other two have a bit of a watery consistancy and the vanilla just tastes nasty.
I'm going to try the Kirkland one and see if that's any better. Thanks for the suggestions
Originally Posted by tboroson
How about homemade almond milk? You could reduce it until it's much thicker than usual. That would be yuuuuuumy with coffee - amaretto
Oooo! I LOVE this idea! Any suggestions on how to make almond milk?
To make almond milk, you'd take almonds (I would sprout them first), and put them in a blender or food processor with water and whir them around for a while. The nutmilk will leach out into the water. Strain it and add a little more water and send it for a spin again. Some people do this several times, I guess it depends on the power of your blender, how well it extracts the nutmilk in each round. The raw nutmilk is very full of enzymes. It's great stuff
If you want to use it for coffee, put it in a wide shallow pan on low heat and allow it to reduce until it's thick and creamy. Stir often. Yeah, it's no longer raw with those added benefits... but then, you're adding it to very hot coffee, which would destroy those enzymes anyway. It's still very nutritious.
we use dairy now but were vegans for ten years and used lots of soy.
we are awaiting food allergy tests and don't use soy anymore nad might have to cut out dairy too
one thing i think makes a HUGE difference when using ANYTHING lighter than half and half is to fill the cup HALF WAY and microwave it and get a frother from IKEA for 1.99 ....you warm the not-half-and-half I use cow's milk mostly and then froth it before you add the coffee
i don't know why it makes it much more palatable but the heating helps and the frothing makes it a treat.
Ok, reducing the almond milk definitely doesn't work. I made the milk which was nice and creamy and smooth. I put it on the stove to reduce on low and within a few minutes it seperated and had a sort of curdled look to it. I took it off the heat and tried to strain it again and all that would come through was this very thin watery liquid.
I know I didn't over heat it - it was on low and only on for a few minutes so I'm not sure what happened but I thought I'd report back and let you know in case someone else was planning on trying it
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could
be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Mothering Forum
A forum community dedicated to all mothers and inclusive family living enthusiasts. Come join the discussion about nurturing, health, behavior, housing, adopting, care, classifieds, and more!