REVIEW: Nestle Coffee-mate Cinnamon Toast Crunch Creamer

Nestle Coffee mate Cinnamon Toast Crunch Creamer

Cinnamon Toast Crunch is, hands down, my favorite cereal. Enjoying a bowl of it can immediately transport me back to more carefree days. When I saw Nestle’s Coffee-mate had launched a new Cinnamon Toast Crunch coffee creamer, I could barely contain my excitement.

In the past, I’ve taken leftover milk from a bowl of CTC and poured it into my coffee. While it’s decent, it leaves a lot to be desired. I prefer cream in my coffee, so that little amalgam is a bit too thin for my taste.

I fantasized about how great it would taste in my cup of joe. I was hoping for a creamer that perfectly captured the essence of Cinnamon Toast Crunch. At the very least, I thought it would maybe taste like horchata (try it if you haven’t), which would be fantastic.

Nestle Coffee mate Cinnamon Toast Crunch Creamer Itself

I poured some of the creamer into a glass to try it straight-up first. There were no visible specs of cinnamon in it. “This is troubling,” I thought to myself. It smelled faintly of French toast. French toast typically has cinnamon, so I figured this was a good sign.

Alone, it tastes like a standard sweetened coffee creamer, but with a minuscule hint of cinnamon. There was no verifiable CTC flavor. It definitely didn’t have a horchata flavor either.

Nestle Coffee mate Cinnamon Toast Crunch Creamer Coffee

In coffee, it had the same effect. It made it creamier and sweeter, as is to be expected. But I could barely taste the cinnamon. If I had not known what I was drinking, there’s no way I could have guessed this was supposed to taste like Cinnamon Toast Crunch. I don’t think I could have even surmised that it was cinnamon flavored. I have had generic, store-brand cinnamon coffee creamers that taste more like my beloved cereal than this.

I feel like this would have been such an easy flavor to nail. I can’t figure out how they missed the mark so dramatically.

I’ll have to stick with pouring leftover cereal milk in my coffee for now. If I’m feeling particularly desperate, I suppose I could eat the cereal with half and half, so that the remnants make a real Cinnamon Toast Crunch creamer. I know that’s excessive, but it’s a better option than this liquid disappointment.

Purchased Price: $3.79
Size: 32 fl. oz. bottle
Purchased at: Fry’s
Rating: 4 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: (1 tbsp) 35 calories, 1.5 grams of fat, 0 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 0 milligrams of cholesterol, 5 milligrams of sodium, 5 grams of carbohydrates, 5 grams of sugar, and 0 grams of protein.

REVIEW: Nestle Coffee-mate Dove Dark Chocolate Almond Creamer

Coffee mate Dove Dark Chocolate Almond Creamer

Coffee-mate’s Dove Dark Chocolate Almond Creamer is one of two Nestle and Mars collaboration flavors with the other one being a Snickers flavor.

This Dove Chocolate version smells like one of the best chocolate milk ever with a hint of nuttiness. But after inhaling too much of it, I noticed a bit of an odd chemical-like smell. It doesn’t completely turn me off to it, but maybe I should stick to quick huffs.

By itself, which is definitely not Nestle’s recommend way to consume its creamers, the coffee enhancer is potent. It’s sweet and tastes nothing like any Dove Dark Chocolate I’ve had. But it does have a strong cocoa flavor with a hint of almonds.

Coffee mate Dove Dark Chocolate Almond Creamer with Coffee

With coffee, the flavors I tasted when drinking it straight up are still there, but obviously muted because of the joe. The dark cocoa flavor blends well with the java. The almond lingers in the background, but it’s harder to detect. Overall, it’s a tasty way to enhance the dark beverage, but it’s not better or less than most Coffee-mate flavors I’ve had. No FOMO here.

The nutty flavor isn’t from almond milk. It’s more of an enhanced version of the nut from “natural flavors.” It not surprising this doesn’t have almond milk because the dairy alternative not only makes things non-dairy, it also makes products non-the-same-price-as-the-non-almond-milk-versions. Nut milk tends to make things more expensive. Oh, by the way, to clarify, this Dove one is non-dairy, like most of Nestle’s creamers.

Dove Dark Chocolate Almond is a decent addition to the long list of other flavors the Nestle creamer brand offers. It’s no International Delight Reese’s Creamer because the candy equation of Reese’s > Dove will NEVER flip. But it’s an excellent flavor to mix it up, especially for someone like me who buys the Coffee-mate three-pack at Costco that has only French Vanilla and Hazelnut and is getting tired of it despite how cheap it is.

Purchased Price: $4.18
Size: 32 fl. oz. bottle
Purchased at: Walmart
Rating: 6 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: (1 tbsp) 35 calories, 1.5 grams of fat, 0 grams of saturated fat, 0 milligrams of cholesterol, 5 milligrams of sodium, 5 grams of carbohydrates, 5 grams of sugar, and 0 grams of protein.

REVIEW: Nestle Coffee mate Snickers Creamer

Nestle Coffee mate Snickers Creamer

Nestle has teamed up with, um, Mars to offer a Snickers-flavored coffee creamer. I’ll let the words on its 32 fluid ounce bottle tell you more, “Satisfied? You’re about to be. Because when it comes to satisfaction nobody does it like Snickers. And when it comes to creamer, nobody does it like Coffee mate. It’s a match made in peanut caramel chocolate coffee heaven.”

For those of you who don’t know what a Snickers bar is for some reason that I guarantee will be a sad story to me, it’s a layer of nougat topped with a layer of caramel with peanuts wading in it and everything is enrobed in chocolate. If that description makes your deprived mouth water, people who don’t know what a Snickers bar is, then let me disappoint it by saying this doesn’t remind me of the iconic candy bar in hot coffee, iced coffee, or in my new way of using creamer, overnight oats.

In the battle between Milky Way vs. Snickers, I’m #TeamSnickers. So I’ve had more than enough of the candy to know what it tastes like, and this doesn’t immediately or distantly remind me of it. I also tried it neat and could taste the chocolate, peanut butter, and caramel, but it formed an odd artificial sweet flavor that I wouldn’t enjoy on its own. Oddly, it smells wonderful, like cookies and cream.

Nestle Coffee mate Snickers Creamer Closeup

When added to coffee it still doesn’t taste like Snickers, but it also doesn’t taste like it does when sipped straight from the bottle. It’s mostly chocolatey, and the weird sweet flavor gets covered up by the java’s bitterness. But there also isn’t anything that reminds me of peanuts or caramel. (Also, what about the nougat?) With its strong chocolate base, it makes my coffee taste like a different shade of mocha. It’s a decent creamer, but I was expecting a bit more.

So, the “um” at the beginning of this review was my brain trying to wrap itself around the idea that Nestle has teamed up with Mars in some DC/Marvel-like crossover. Hey, Nestle rhymes with DC and Mars kind of rhymes with Marvel!

It’s a little odd to see Nestle, the brand behind such favorite candy bars as Butterfinger, Crunch, Baby Ruth, and 100 Grand, team up with Mars, the company behind more popular candy bars, to offer coffee creamers. But I guess now that the candy division of Nestle is now owned by Ferrero (yes, as in Ferrero Rocher), the Nestle that doesn’t deal with candy in the U.S. can do whatever the heck it wants.

With Coffee mate’s Snickers Creamer, it’s as if Nestle and Mars got lazy and slapped the Snickers name on this without actually making it taste like the popular candy bar. I mean, it’s as lazy as copying whatever text is on a bottle and using it in the first paragraph of a review. It’s fine as a coffee addition and I’ll drink the rest without hesitation, but if you’re a hardcore #TeamSnickers, it might not satisfy you.

Purchased Price: $4.29
Size: 32 fl. oz. bottle
Purchased at: Target
Rating: 6 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: (1 tbsp) 35 calories, 1.5 grams of fat, 0 grams of saturated fat, 0 milligrams of cholesterol, 20 milligrams of sodium, 5 grams of carbohydrates, 5 grams of sugar, and 0 grams of protein.

REVIEW: Nestle Coffee-mate The Cheesecake Factory At Home Strawberry Cheesecake Creamer

Nestle Coffee mate The Cheesecake Factory At Home Strawberry Cheesecake Creamer

Like beer and Brussels sprouts, strawberry milk is an acquired taste.

For me, the artificial fruit flavor that flings itself across my taste buds isn’t my first choice for flavored milk. But after being stuck with a container of strawberry Nestle Quik in the 1980s (yes, it used to be called Quik, I’m old, get off my lawn), and not being able to get my usual chocolate Quik until I used up the strawberry one, I grew to enjoy its flavor. I like it to the point where I buy a bottle of Strawberry Nesquik from time to time for nostalgia’s sake.

I bring that up because Nestle’s Coffee-mate The Cheesecake Factory Strawberry Cheesecake Creamer reminds me of the month I spent slowly going through the Strawberry Quik tin. They both have a similar flavor that won’t appeal to everyone.

Case in point, I liked it in my medium roast iced coffee but taking her first (and only) sip of what I was drinking caused my wife to grimace so hard that I didn’t recognize her for a moment. While my wife is my only sample size, that look on her face makes me think I might be the ONLY person on Earth who enjoys this creamer.

By itself, the white-colored creamer tastes excellent. It has a flavor that’s part-natural (thanks to the strawberry juice concentrate) and part-artificial (thanks to food scientists). It reminds me of strawberry ice cream that’s heavy on the dairy.

But what I don’t get is the cheesecake. It’s there in the aftertaste, lingering like a cheesecake ghost. However, it’s so faint that I’m not sure the word “cheesecake” should be attached to this. But, let’s be honest, having cheesecake’s tang in a coffee would be weird. Then again, some folks mix butter and salt with their cup of joe.

To be honest, I’m surprised I liked it in coffee. I’ve tried many creamers, but none have been fruit flavored. They’ve all come from the three primary coffee creamer groups — chocolate, vanilla, and caramel. I thought this would give off a weird fruity flavor, but it didn’t. Okay, some of you will find it odd. Also, any hint of cheesecake tang is gone.

While I enjoyed Nestle’s Coffee-mate The Cheesecake Factory Strawberry Cheesecake Creamer, I can understand how folks, like my wife, won’t. I guess it’s an acquired taste. But if you also thought it was tasty, tell me in the comments so I know I’m not the only person on Earth who liked this.

(Nutrition Facts – 1 tbsp – 35 calories, 1.5 grams of fat, 0 grams of saturated fat, 0 milligrams of cholesterol, 5 milligrams of sodium, 5 grams of carbohydrates, 5 grams of sugar, and 0 grams of protein.)

Purchased Price: $3.29
Size: 32 fl. oz. bottle
Purchased at: Target
Rating: 7 out of 10
Pros: Surprisingly tasty with coffee. It reminds me of Strawberry Quik. Missing the cheesecake’s tang might be a good thing.
Cons: Strawberry-flavored coffee won’t be everyones’ cup of tea, I mean, coffee. Missing the cheesecake part (although that might be a good thing). Seeing your wife grimace to the point where you don’t recognizer her.