Coffee Creamer - Tim Horton's

andrushkiwt

Well-known member
Well, working nights, I drink a lot of coffee. I drink it during the day, because that's what my body wants - and at night to stay awake. My favorite chain has become Tim Horton's. After drinking there religiously for months, I've realized that what sets it apart from the other places is the creamer.

Doing some research, in order to get close to this taste at home, I've found that TH's most likely uses 18% table cream. I've seen reviews/comments in forums from users saying that they purchase the 18% stuff at their grocer and this is what takes their coffee to TH level.

Unfortunately, those users were all in Canada. The labeling is different in the US, and there is no (at my local stores) clear marking that the cream is 18%. Obviously, I would skip right over the most used creamer, that being the flavored stuff. I checked out all the "light/heavy" cream and read the labels right there at the store for probably 10 mins, looking like a weirdo. :) No clear marking of 18%.

So... for anyone that might know, what particular brand sells the 18% stuff? The coffee cream here is divided between saturated fats and unsaturated fats for a total %. But those numbers are usually between 8-10% each. Does 18% refer to total fat or a specific fat?

Gotta have my TH's creamer, so please chime in if you have any idea. thanks!

edit: found this on Wikipedia -

"United States:

18–30% Also called "table" cream or "coffee" cream. An old style product for whitening coffee and also as an enriching ingredient in sauces and other recipes. This product is becoming difficult to find at retail in many areas.

Canada:

Table cream 15–18% Coffee cream. Also as cooking or "thick" cream 15% with added stabilizers. In Francophone areas: crème de table 15% or crème à café 18%; and for cooking, crème champêtre 15%, crème campagnarde (country cream) 15% or crème épaisse 15%."

So, I guess my question is - what creamer in the US meets this Canadian definition of table cream/18%?
 
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Ok I got it from the Cows mouth....Just so happens one of my buds is a facility operations manager at one of the largest milk packaging plants in So Cal...

They supply Milk n Cream for a ton of different grocery stores and coffee houses including Starbucks.

What we are talking about is butter fat...Whipping cream is @ 32% Half and Half is @ half of that which gets it really close to your TH goal... When milk comes out of the cow it is only 3.87% butterfat...in the winter...it goes down in the summer...all the rest is in the magic of processing.

They make a "special half n half for Starbucks... he did not know the actual percentage off the top of his head but was pretty certain it was higher than 16%...getting close...

For you to get the "magic" place you want to be...I'd suggest just go buy a pint of whipping cream which should be @ 32% ..16 oz in a pint....1 oz = 2% fat.... if you add 7 oz of water to that you now have a 18% creamer....or...

You could just experiment using the 32% stuff...that's what a bud of mine does and he judges it by the color he wants it to be...... or just use half n half if that is close enough for you...I suspect TH just has a special blend made with a little more butter fat...

Man I loves my coffee in the morning ...we buy the Costco RED BAG coffee ( supplied by Starbucks ) Then I grind it there at the Warehouse as fine as it will grind it....we use half n half and it sure does make the morning flatten out
 
Thanks TAE. Glad I posted here. I guess you never know who knows who. That's pretty cool, and thanks for asking. I really doubt half and half is the closest though. I've used that plenty of times in my life and the TH's stuff tastes much thicker/creamier than plain ol' half and half. A chef friend of mine is suggesting to buy the carton labeled "light cream 20%". The thing some ppl aren't understanding is that our US cartons are not labeled as such. It might say "light cream", but none said what % they were. And even comparing two different "light creams" side by side, the fat contents (sat and unsat) were different. :facepalm:

I guess I need to move to Canada to get the real deal.
 
Well, chef, here, also. As you know, milk and cream were delivered to my house by the milkman. Heavy cream might be too much for some, but what is it you want on your fresh sliced peaches. You could dot with the Mexican Creama. Bufferfat is good, though not many buy butterfat milk
 
WTF is "coffee creamer"? Some bizarre American invention to make your coffee palatable?

That was actually the Seven Dwarfs creaming in those MacDonald's cups . That was too expensive and they made something "processed". Oh, geez. I have some organic vitamin D milk I've not opened ( I usually just buy Daisy Sour Cream for dairy). I have a cup to go on my evening coffee, so it will get whole milk
 
I love coffee, love it. However it really F**ks me up if I drink it for more than two days in a row. It taxes my adrenal gland (yours too) and if you're drinking it every day, it's not healthy! Especially when you are adding all the extras to get it to your liking. I suggest you all consider a high quality vodka, or even better, a fine single malt scotch:D

I prefer my coffee strong and black, on Fridays and Sundays only.
 
WTF is "coffee creamer"? Some bizarre American invention to make your coffee palatable?

Basically. I've found I prefer the table cream/light cream through this whole ordeal. Now, the flavored coffee creamers at every grocery store don't come close to the real deal. I guess it's all about American laziness... the step of adding your own sugar was removed with sweetened/flavored creamer. I'm just trying to find the hard stuff!
 
Not a fan of any of the "artificial" flavored creamers.

You should be able to achieve TH nirvana with slightly diluted whipping or "heavy" cream. Again it is all about the butter fat, which oddly here in the states is not actually revealed on the label but rather divided up into it's various sub fats.

That all said due to your perfectionist nature you have brought attention to a detail I had not been aware of and thus forced me (as a semi sort of half ass perfectionist) to investigate why...It's the damn FDA fault and truth (or hidden in the data / statistics truth) in lableing BS.

I guess they changed the rules on labeling about 20 years ago....Good article on it HERE Skimming the milk label


Below are the current criteria / legal minimums / maximums for Canada and the U.S.

Canada
In Canada "whole" milk refers to creamline (unhomogenized) milk.
"Homogenized" milk (abbreviated to "homo" on labels and in speech) refers to milk which is 3.25%[9] butterfat (or milk fat).
There are also skim, 1%, and 2% milk fat milks.

Modern commercial dairy processing techniques involve first removing all of the butterfat, and then adding back the appropriate amount depending on which product is being produced on that particular line.

In the U.S. and Canada, a blended mixture of half cream and half milk is often sold in small quantities and is called half-and-half. Half-and-half is used for creaming coffee and similar uses. In Canada, low-fat cream is available, which has half the fat content of half-and-half.

United States
Butterfat content U.S. terminology
80% Butter
45% Manufacturer's cream
36% Heavy whipping cream
30% Whipping cream or light whipping cream
25% Medium cream
18–30% Light cream, coffee cream, or table cream
10.5–18% Half and half
3.25% Whole milk or regular milk
about 2% 2% milk or reduced fat milk
about 1% 1% milk or low fat milk
0–0.5% Skim milk or nonfat milk
 
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Hmm. remembering when Ice Cream was Ice Cream. They were forced to label it as Ice Milk for awhile
 
...which oddly here in the states is not actually revealed on the label but rather divided up into it's various sub fats.It's the damn FDA fault and truth (or hidden in the data / statistics truth) in lableing BS.

Exactly. This is the point I'm trying to make. This is why it's difficult to find what I'm looking for. Glad ya noticed it too, as some friends are saying it shouldn't be hard to find table cream... they don't realize the FDA, who mandates the labeling requirements, made this difficult for consumers.

It doesn't appear I can get straight up "table cream" at the grocer...I'll have to make some blend, yeah?
 
I don't know the answer to this, as I don't use cream in my coffee.

But I second your aforementioned solution.

Move to Canada.

I would if I could, but the whole 'wife thing' kinda throws a monkey wrench into those plans.
 
Another vote for heavy cream being what you're looking for. Also called 'whipping cream', which is how I've mostly used it (whipped topping).

I've used heavy cream in coffee and it's fine (but unhealthy), so half and half is what I use daily. Whole milk is also okay to use but I feel like I need to add more and it ends up diluting the coffee too much.

Congrats, after 17 years actively using internet forums this is most definitely the first thread on creamers I've ever read.
 
Light cream. Heavy cream. I've been led to understand that "cream" is actually milk. I presume heavy cream is actual cream.

This is never an issue in Australia because we largely only have espresso coffee - you just ask for what you want and it comes fully assembled - no-one adds milk/cream to it, it's made with it in it.

None of this overbrewed filter coffee sitting on the hob forever like I've seen in every American TV show/movie ever.

Australia had a large group of Italian migrants after WW2 and they bought their espresso machines with them and so real, actual coffee is the default. Starbucks attempted to take over the market here and beat a retreat - why would anyone drink Starbucks crap when there are 10 real coffee shops within 100 metres. They're still here, but they're wounded.

I work in a new area with three quite large office towers - 30 to 40 stories each. Apart from multiple cafes in each of the buildings themselves, there are 16 cafes, all selling espresso coffee, at the base of those three buildings. And they're all doing well.

Lack of coffee is never a problem here...
 
The wife is from Colombia and she got me started on coffee. Not even 6 years in the US Submarine fleet could do that. Her family makes it with milk, not water. Super creamy. They use instant coffee, but it's way better than anything we can get in the states. Every time we go down for a visit, we're bringing a suitcase full of that stuff home with us. Going back down this summer. :thumbs up:

In the US, we like our coffee to last longer than 2 or 3 sips, so espresso isn't as popular. Yeah, american coffee is a little watered down compared to espresso, but we aren't lightweights who sip with our pinkies pointing skyward. :D Chug-a-lug that stuff. :drunk:
 
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