Chobani Coffee Creamer - Sweet Cream

In my last post, I mentioned a little bit about my coffee journey. I have a need for creamer in my coffee. I think it stems from starting doing what I'd seen from others in real life as well as TV and movies - some cream and sugar. Nowadays for me is a splash of cream and maybe some sugar-free syrup if I'm feeling fancy (my favorite as of late is Torani Sugar-Free Almond Roca). Most of the time it's just creamer. (I've also been known to add a splash in my tea.)

Creamer takes the place of "milk and sugar" since there's usually some kind of sweetness involved since I like flavored creamers. I usually use Silk Sweet and Creamy Almond Creamer, Since I'm using the creamer for coffee and tea, I don't want something that will alter the flavor profile of the drink. Like if I'm drinking Earl Grey tea, I wouldn't want a hazelnut creamer or something like that - I'd want something with a neutral flavor profile that would go with any choice.

While at an Asian market recently (I was mainly there looking for apricot kernel powder for something), I needed to buy milk but couldn't find a dairy section anywhere in the store. So after getting the things I needed from that store, I went next door-ish to another grocery store to grab a few things, and while getting some milk, I saw that Chobani had new coffee creamers out. (I will admit, the colors, artwork, and packaging caught my eye first.) I was also looking for my usual creamer - but guess what? They were out. So I checked out the Chobani brand, and they had a Sweet Cream which made me happy (since usually, I don't find "sweet cream" in most brands so I end up getting vanilla or something).

And it was yummy!

The side of the bottle says "Simple Ingredients" and underneath... "We keep our creamer simple and delicious. Starting from fresh cream from our yogurt-making process, we add only milk, cane sugar, and a touch of natural flavoring. Stirred into your coffee, our creamer makes every sip sweeter than the last."

Now of course after reading this, I went in search of the official list of ingredients that can be found with the "nutritional information" - and is listed as follows: milk, cream, cane sugar, natural flavors.

Can someone tell me what "natural flavors" they used? Not really sure what that means. I get the gist of course, but it just seems rather vague to me.

Regardless of the mysterious "natural flavors" - I would buy this again. It's nice to have a backup alternative for coffee and tea needs.

The bottle is 24oz and lists one serving size to be a tablespoon - which is 30 calories per serving, the bottle yielding about 47 servings.

https://www.chobani.com/products/coffee-creamer/creamer/sweet-cream/
https://www.chobani.com/

Later my lovelies.

Have Goodness!
Rae

Chameleon Cold-Brew with Organic Oat Milk [Dark Chocolate]

I make my own cold brew. It's pretty easy - coffee grounds, cold water, leave to steep overnight and voila! Coffee!!!

I didn't use to be a coffee drinker. I grew up a Kool-Aid Queen consuming mass quantities of oversugared Tropical Fruit Punch (thanks Mom), and staining my upper lip with a Kool-Aid mustache (which really only looked like evil vaudevillians since the red usually curled at the corners of my mouth.

Or perhaps maybe a little Joker-like?

Coca-Cola Energy

The things you find at an Asian Market... and later see at Target. LOL!

While at one of the main Asian markets I go to - though not often since it's an Asian shopping center, and parking is always chaotic and ridiculous - I thought about getting a drink that I could sip while out on the rest of my errands. I had bought all the main things I had gone there for that I could find, and when looking for a drink, I found in the midst of all the more Asian branded/type drinks, I saw the bright familiar red can. I knew right away it was a Coke product, but then they also had a sign saying it was a limited item, etc.

Coca-Cola Energy Drink. The tagline from the can? The only energy drink with a great Coca-Cola taste. (Catchy, eh?) And it also says "high caffeine - guarana extract - B vitamins.

The can size is about the same as the average can of Red Bull (8oz).

At the Asian market, there was a sign showing limited stock - a "get it while you can" kind of thing. Not sure if the advertising was to get people to buy them or quite literally they didn't have a lot and possibly weren't going to get anymore.

When at Target recently, I saw the same can as well as a few other flavor options.

So one weekend after having purchased this can I thought "Why not?" and drank it while getting ready to leave home and run errands. And it tasted... like Coke. Okay, it tasted like Coke but with that energy drink aftertaste.

Now, I have had a lot of energy drinks in my time. I used to be a Mountain Dew Amp girl... then transitioned to Red Bull... and now I'm a toss-up between a Rockstar or "bang" girl. (Reading that last bit activated my "that reads/sounds wrong" alert, but that is the brand name so I'm leaving it.

I've tried many brands and flavors and types. I even have tried the little energy shots. All in all, I'm familiar with the energy drink flavor profile. It would be nice if companies could make an energy drink not taste like an energy drink, but it is what it is. You get used to it. Like now - I'm a diet soda drinker. Mainly because I'm not a picky eater by trade so I'm more than willing to accommodate friends that have dietary preferences, etc, and some of my close homies drank diet. But when drinking soda, you can totally taste the difference between regular and diet... but after drinking it for a while, you start to not care or notice anymore.

I'm like that with energy drinks (though the "bang" brand tastes REALLY sweet to me - more so than any other non-diet energy drink out there). So I noticed that flavor in this one by Coke. I've had cola-flavored energy drinks before, but this one has he distinct Coca-Cola taste... plus the energy drink taste.

I remember as a kid back in the day of the Pepsi versus Coke soda war, I was a Coke girl. (To be completely honest, I started as an RC Cola girl, but you can't find Royal Crown anymore. Not on the regular at least. I usually find them randomly at a liquor store or whatever and always get one for nostalgia's sake.) But I always like Coke a little more than Pepsi - especially back then - due to the advertising. From what I can recall, Coke was just... Coke. It had its ads, and basically was like "Hey, drink our soda if you want." But Pepsi did the politician thing and seemed to always insult or make fun of Coke in their ads which annoyed me. (I don't like bullies or assholes.) Plus, Pepsi was too sweet. Coke was just right. You know, like Baby Bear's porridge.

In the end, I finished off the can and wasn't too impressed. Maybe I'm just immune to energy drinks. In general, they all taste the same to me. Mountain Dew's AMP tastes different since Mountain Dew has its own flavor.

Coca-Cola Energy is not bad or good. It's just one of the many.

https://us.coca-cola.com/energy/
https://us.coca-cola.com/

Later my lovelies.

Have Goodness!
Rae

Rogue Soda - Honey Orange

So a few weeks ago I decided I was going to try and be productive. I had worked the opening shift at work which got me out of the office by 3:30pm. I thought "I'll be productive on the way home and get some things done."

I would like to point out that while my mind was saying "Let's Do This!" my body was experiencing that lovely monthly visitor (aka Powerloss) which left my body screaming back "Let's Go Home & Lay Down... Maybe Even Sleep?"

But I pushed through and made myself run my errands which consisted of mostly going to Target.

In reality there were maybe a handful of things I really needed to get, but I also like to take my time, check out the dollar bins, check out some clothes, maybe some hair products and various other departments to get some ideas about what to do with my apartment or some organizational ideas for my life.

I made my way around the store and was in the food aisle. PMS was demanding I get everything, but I said "No, we're being good." (Needless to say PMS pouted in the corner for a long time.)

Feeling like crap and holding myself occasionally like I was with child, I debated on getting something to drink, and I came across something that I thought was supposed to be in the beer section. But nope... it was a beer brand, but soda pop.

There were three flavors to choose from: Root Beer, Citrus Cucumber, and Honey Orange (the one I chose... initially for the honey orange part, but the coriander and chamomile intrigued me as well).

This delicious thing sat in my fridge for a bit, and I finally whipped it out tonight. I really liked it. It tasted sweet but not too sweet and rather refreshing. It reminded me of a light orange cream soda.

I drank about a third of the soda straight, and then I used the rest to make a float using the rest of my Blue Bunny Coco Mango ice cream. (So good!)

On the website, there's one suggested recipe for each of the sodas. I was going to post it here, but then I saw there were two (one from the site and an additional one) so instead of writing them both out, I felt lazy and posted a pic of them here.

One is called a "Main Squeeze" using vodka, orange juice, and bitters along with the soda.

The second is called "Brass Bee" which is to be combined with Rogue Farms 19 Original Colonies Mead.

Would I Ever Try This Again?: Abso-frakkin-lutely. I'm not only interested in trying the other two flavors but all the suggested cocktails as well.

Rogue Ales
Newport, Oregon 97365

www.rogue.com/roguesoda/
www.rogue.com