The only party I hadn’t spoken to yet was the very source of my morning joy, so I reached out to International Delight for more information. One of my colleagues said, “Yes, it is gross because it’s very sweet and full of chemicals (some of which are banned in other countries) but it still delicious and I use it!!! America!” Some folks polled said it was a “special treat” or that they were “creamer obsessed.” Still curious, I ran an informal poll among my TODAY colleagues, and of the 12 folks polled, 25% found creamer to be “gross,” while a whopping 42% found creamer to be a delicious treat. Ignored as it may be internationally, it’s still my “mug’s BFF” as it’s printed on the bottle. She says the lack of flavored coffee is actually a bit of a sore spot for some folks in Europe, and the fact that it is a frequent discussion point on Reddit backs up this claim. We just drink it black or with milk,” Corrina O’Brien tells me, adding that for most people in Europe, Starbucks is the only place to get flavored coffee syrups of any kind. “We like our coffee to taste like coffee. She used to live stateside but now lives in her hometown of Dublin, Ireland. Although delightful to me, is it really “international”? I asked my dear European friend about it. In the search to understand my own love for creamer, I took a look at one of my bottles, and that got me thinking about the name. Today, Coffee-Mate is the top-selling creamer in the nation, followed by International Delight. Later, after other powdered creamer products hit the market in the early 1950s including “Pream” and “Mocha Mix Coffee Creamer,” the first commercial nondairy creamer and the first product with the words “coffee creamer” in its name, Coffee-Mate hit the scene in 1961 and became the tops. “Rex” Diamond developed a soy cream substance that could be mixed with coffee, ostensibly creating the very first coffee creamer, and starting our country's coffee cups on a path that leads directly to the PSL. Of course, the company wasn’t the first to create what we now know as creamer.Īll the way back in the 1940s, at Henry Ford’s Carver Laboratory, Bob Smith and Holton W. While I didn’t make my way to coffee until my adult years, drinking Cafe Bustelo as a (very energetic) teen, International Delight, with its seven-syllable name, holds the distinction of being the very first liquid nondairy creamer to be put on the market. International Delight is almost as old as my 40-year-old self, first founded in 1987. I have quite a daring palate, which comes with the territory of trying foods both wild and wonderful as part of my milieu - but coffee with a splash of my preferred creamer is comfort to me, like a warm, caramel-scented blanket. Like other folks who have formed parasocial relationships with their favorite NPR hosts, I drink my fair share of the stuff, and have enjoyed roasted bean juice sans sugar in cortados, doppios and Americanos. This isn’t to say that I don’t like the taste of black coffee. In addition to the “coffee should be enjoyed black” purists - of which there are still 1 in 5 Americans, according to a 2022 YouGov poll - there are now a swath of folks who suggest making coffee creamer at home from scratch - but no, thanks. Some even go so far as to pour it down the drain for their own personal reasons. There are myriad souls on TikTok, Reddit and other social media sites that have decried adding of the not-actually-cream substance into a cup of joe. As a Person Who Works In Food, I enjoy the stuff unironically, even as the food elite may turn their noses up at me. In fact, as I write this, an empty bottle of it sits next to me, with two more waiting in the fridge for future mornings. My poison, as some would call it: International Delight’s Caramel Macchiato.Īs a human being who lives, breathes and consumes culinary excellence on a daily basis, I hesitate to call my wake-up drink a guilty pleasure, as I feel no shame in enjoying it. (What? It’s really what I do.)īefore I sit down to watch my on-air colleagues Hoda Kotb laud the crunchy tilapia at Trader Joe’s or see Craig Melvin perfect his popsicle technique, I, TODAY’s own food reporter, commit what many may consider a cardinal culinary sin during my breakfast routine: I add a heaping glug of sweetly flavored creamer to my coffee. Rain or shine, I always begin my mornings with the same ritual: a brushing of the teeth, a scrub of the face and - of course - turning on TODAY as I get ready for the day ahead of me. Every morning, I wake up parched, bleary eyed and in need of a good stretch.
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