sweeten me up

I have a problem. And it's not an easy one to solve.

I don't like plain, black coffee. I wish I did. It would make my morning, afternoon and evening cup(s) of joe much easier to fix and consume.

I also like some flavor beyond just sugar (although that will do in a pinch.) I love creamer - French vanilla is still a favorite, but I will try just about anything except the caramel ones. I also love this time of year when Chocolate Mint Truffle or Peppermint Mocha is available. Last year, I stocked up on about six bottles of the stuff at the end of the holiday season so I could enjoy the flavors longer. (The shelf life on that stuff is insane. And a bit scary.)

What I don't love is that my favorite brands and flavors of coffee whitener are loaded with crap. And yes, I know I can buy cream, but it doesn't give me a vanilla flavor. And yes, I know I can buy vanilla syrup for my coffee, but - two problems - first, now I would be putting TWO things into my coffee (oh the WORK!) and second, it's high fructose corn syrup with a little fake vanilla flavoring.

Putting real vanilla extract doesn't work well either, because it leaves a bit of alcohol aftertaste. Yes, coffee is already bitter, but come on. I want it to taste right. I could steep a vanilla bean in cream, but by the time it would taste like anything, the cream would probably be spoiled.

So, I'm stuck. Land-O-Lakes used to make a vanilla-flavored heavy cream, but apparently I was the only consumer purchasing it, because it didn't stay on the shelves very long.

I recently got persuaded into trying Truvia in my coffee. All-natural, right? Well, okay stevia is a plant and it's natural. Sugar is natural too, but not when you extract only one part of it after it's gone through like 27 separate processing processes. All this so Cargill can put a patent on the combination, which they couldn't if they just mixed stevia and plain sugar. How hard could that be? But, ah, there would be no trademark and therefore no corner on the market and therefore no profits if someone chose to "copy" their idea.

Oh, and another thing - the Truvia was horrid. Couldn't even finish the cup. Don't know how that one got past taste tests in quality control.

So, all griping aside, I'm not sure if I have any other options. I guess I should just remind myself that there are worse things I could be consuming - I'm not spiking my coffee with anything other than the 35-calorie-per-tablespoon creamer. And I'm fixing it at home where it's still fairly inexpensive.

Sweeten me up with some sugar, partially hydrogenated soybean oil, sodium caseinate, dipotassium phosphate, disodium phoshate, mono- and diglycerides, cellulose gel, cellulose gum, coloring, salt, natural and artificial flavor, sucralose and carrageenan.

And honestly, I didn't know there was Sucralose in my creamer until just now!!

That's not news that can be sugar-coated with anything. I'm just devastated. Once again, I'm at the mercy of what's available to me as a consumer. It's maddening.

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*NOTE: It appears that only CoffeeMate's Italian Sweet Cream has Sucralose. The other four varieties in my fridge do not. Whew. I can still be my sweet old self.