REFUSE: Flavored Coffee Creamers- Responsibly Enjoying Your Cup Of Joe

Good afternoon, REFUSERS! Did all of you enjoy some coffee like we did this morning? How do you take your coffee? With sugar? With honey? With creamer? My favorite coffee beverage is a Honduran blend (found in abundance down here) with one of those deeeelicious flavored creamers, preferably French Vanilla.

Two problems here: plastic and fat. We'll start with the plastic.

  

Flavored coffee creamers come in a Number 5 Polypropylene (PP) plastic container. This plastic is thick and durable, used most often because of its resistance to heat. Businesses prefer to use thicker plastics because of durability, especially for the shipping and handling process getting these bottles to your local grocery store. Thicker plastic means more plastic, logically speaking, and we don't like more plastic. Their high melting point also makes them difficult to recycle, and therefore there are fewer recycling centers available for this Number 5 PP. Less than 24% of this type of plastic gets recycled. Some recycling centers actually reject this type of plastic and instead send it right over to the landfill where it will do absolutely nothing but become brittle in the sun and leak chemicals into the soil.

And here's an article from 2008 about Number 5 plastics leaking chemicals.

http://www.ewg.org/news/researchers-raise-alarm-after-chemical-leak-found-common-plastic

Moving on to the body portion of this conversation...

Did you know... In every Tablespoon (TBSP) of flavored coffee creamer you put into your coffee, you're consuming between 29-35 calories, 1.5-2.9 grams of fat, and .55-1.35 grams of carbohydrates.  Seems somewhat insignificant, huh? We haven't even mentioned the sugar- 10 grams per TBSP- or how it adds up over your week. People generally put 3-4 TBSP of flavored coffee creamer into each cup of coffee. I know I generally drink 2-4 cups of coffee a day, which we'll call 15 cups per week (sometimes it's a 2-cup day, sometimes it's a 4-cup day). That equals an extra 1300-1500 calories, 450 grams of sugar, per week. Oh, did I mention this is for a light or diet flavored creamer? It only gets worse. And not to mention, there is not an ounce of good stuff in there for you- no vitamins, no minerals, no protein... All sugar, oils, and chemicals. 

Bad, coffee creamer!

If you love coffee as much as I love coffee, I know how you're feeling- shocked and disappointed. "How will I ever be able to enjoy my steaming cup of joe ever again?" Don't you worry your pretty little head. Here's where REFUSING can be good for your health AND your Earth!

Half-and-half containers contribute to a 92% reduction in waste because of their extremely low levels of plastic. Some companies choose to coat the inside of the paper container with wax, completely eliminating the use of plastics! 


WE LIKE TO HEAR THAT!


As for the health aspect, half-and-half has only 9 calories per TBSP, .21 grams of fat, and 1.35 grams of carbohydrates. It contains only .75 grams of sugar (all naturally occurring, mind you), and you actually get some good stuff- calcium and protein. Feeling bored with JUST half-and-half? I even have some recipes for you so you're not missing out on anything. 

For the base recipe:

Buy your favorite brand half-and-half in the half-pint size. For a full pint size, double the recipe. I buy fat free. Add in your favorite sweetener to taste. 4 packets of that yellow sweetener does it for me.

Here are some different flavors:

Vanilla
to the base recipe, add
1 Tablespoon of Vanilla extract

Cinnamon Vanilla
to the base recipe, add
1 Tablespoon of Vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Chocolate
to the base recipe, add
1 Tablespoon of Vanilla extract
3 Tablespoons cocoa powder

Chocolate Mint
to the base recipe, add
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 Tablespoons cocoa powder
1 teaspoon mint extract

Dulce de Leche
to the base recipe, add
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 Tablespoons caramel sauce or canned dulce de leche
Note: consider decreasing the amount of sweetener in the base recipe to keep your creamer from being too sweet.

Amaretto
to the base recipe, add
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon almond extract

Chocolate Orange
to the base recipe, add
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 T. cocoa powder
1 teaspoon orange extract

Chocolate Cinnamon
to the base recipe, add
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
3 Tablespoons cocoa powder

(Thanks to http://www.squidoo.com/homemade-coffee-creamer for the recipes)

Unbelievable to me how easy this is. When I decided to give up coffee creamers because of the amount of plastic they used, I had no idea I was going to be able to help my body out, too.

Thanks for reading, REFUSERS.