I’ve always been astounded by the different types of vanilla ice cream with some brands. It doesn’t begin and end with vanilla. A quick look at Dreyer’s site tells me it has French Vanilla, Vanilla Bean, and a regular Vanilla. Breyers has Extra Creamy Vanilla, Natural Vanilla, Homemade Vanilla, and French Vanilla.
For many years, the two biggest coffee creamer brands haven’t expanded their vanilla portfolios beyond French Vanilla. But that has changed for Coffee mate with the rollout of its new Vanilla Bean variety. I’ll admit, it’s not as glamorous as the Rice Krispies Treats and Golden Grahams creamers that the brand introduced at the same time, but it’s nice to have another basic vanilla flavor.
If you’re wondering, unlike the ice cream, no vanilla bean specks are floating in this. I mean, I didn’t expect there would be because who wants something that looks like coffee grinds to be floating in their coffee.
The creamer smells like vanilla frosting and, straight out of the bottle and into my mouth, it tastes like a combination of frosting and ice cream. I’m not going to say it’s specifically vanilla bean ice cream, though.
I find it a bit more vanilla-y than Coffee mate’s French Vanilla. However, in coffee, its flavor doesn’t stand out as much as the older vanilla creamer does, which causes me to add more than I usually do to hide the coffee’s taste adequately, and in turn, I go through a bottle quicker.
That’s not a complete deal-breaker because this is still a perfectly okay tasting creamer. But when I’m half awake and don’t even know what day it is, I don’t think I’d like to be reminded every morning that I need to add more creamer than usual by taking my first sip of the day and then muttering “dammit” because I can still strongly taste the cheap McCafe ground coffee I use.
I had high hopes for this variety because last year’s Coffee mate Caramel was surprisingly great for a basic flavor. It had a potent, natural-ish taste when mixed in my coffee. Also, I was hoping for something I could occasionally switch with French Vanilla since I’ve had it way too many times, thanks to it being two bottles of a Coffee mate refrigerated creamer 3-pack that Costco sells. But it appears I’ll still be sticking with it and the Cold Stone Creamery Sweet Cream flavor that the other big creamer brand sells.
Maybe Coffee mate will add another vanilla variety someday. Might I recommend Extra Creamy Vanilla, Natural Vanilla, or Homemade Vanilla?
DISCLOSURE: I received a free product sample from Coffee mate. Doing so did not influence my review.
Purchased Price: FREE
Size: 32 fl oz bottle
Purchased at: Received from Coffee mate
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, 10 milligrams of sodium, 5 grams of carbohydrates, 0 grams of fiber, 5 grams of sugar (including 5 grams of added sugar), and 0 grams of protein.