If this is coffee, please bring me some tea; but if this is tea, please bring me some coffee.

– Abraham Lincoln

I like to drink my coffee black.  No cream or sugar, just plain and simple.  My wife, and a lot of other people I know, add powdered coffee whitener (non-dairy creamer) to their coffee.

Have you ever wanted to know what exactly this non-dairy creamer was made from?  I did, so I got the container out of the cupboard and read the ingredients.  Then, I had to go and research what each of those ingredients were because there were a lot of really big words 😉 .

Non-Dairy Creamer Ingredients

The following list gives a brief description of each ingredient.

• Glucose Syrup
  • Glucose or corn syrup is used as a sweetener.

• Hydrogenated Vegetable Oil(coconut, palm kernel and/or soybean oil)
  • To replicate the feel of cream without using milk fats, other fats are used.  In this case, vegetable oils.
  • Although the amounts are low, there are trans-fats present.

• Sodium Caseinate
  • This is a milk protein (casein comes from the latin word for cheese).  It gets added to give a milky flavour and texture.

• Di-potassium Phosphate
  • Digestion of sugars, fats, and proteins is aided by this food additive.  You have to wonder though because dipotassium phosphate is also used as fertilizer and as a pesticide.

• Sodium Aluminum Silicate
  • Also know as albite feldspar, it is used by potters as a glazing and strengthening agent.  In this case, it is used as an anti-caking agent so the creamer remains powdery.  (Note: because it remains powdery, it can also be very flammable!)
  • Food additives containing aluminum are coming under more and more scrutiny due to health concerns.

• Monoglycerides
  • Acting as an emulsifier, monoglycerides help mix the creamer into the coffee.  They are fatty acids ending in a glyceride molecule.  The glyceride end attaches to water in the coffee, while the fatty acid end binds to fats and oils in the creamer.

• Acetylated Tartaric Acid Esters of Mono and Digycerides
  • Again, these are emulsifiers.  See Monoglycerides, above, for details.

• Artificial Flavour
  • Manufacturers generally keep their flavouring agents secret.  You can probably assume that glucose syrup and vegetable oil doesn’t taste much like cream, so they need to add something!

• Colour
  • The particular brand of creamer that I looked at just said colour in the ingredients list.  One common yellowish food colouring that is used is called Annatto.

After making this list, I don’t think I start putting powdered creamer in my coffee anytime soon.  How do you like your coffee?  Please, leave a comment and let us know your opinion.

Thanks for reading.

More information can be found in the following articles:

• Wired Magazine
• Canada.com