Hold the Cream - Forever

I grew up drinking lots and lots of cream in my coffee. I started drinking coffee on a regular basis when I was 5 years old. My mother was having a huge struggle getting me to drink milk. Knowing how much I utterly loved coffee even then she decided to let me have a cup a day. Those first early cups were a little bit of coffee and a lot of milk. As I grew older the coffee increased and the milk changed to liquid coffee creamer. Liquid coffee creamer is very delicious, and well admit it, some of the flavored ones are so good you could simply turn the box up and drink it straight out of the carton. However, low calorie they are not, and even the ones that are lower in calorie and fat add up if you drink a lot of cups during a day like I do. After I got married let's just say my waistline....ummmm...started an expansion project. I had to take a serious look at some ways to cut calories out of my diet. I drink a lot of coffee in a day...sometimes 4 to 8 cups a day. I used to add cream to every cup and not just a tiny teaspoonful either. It finally hit me how many calories I was consuming from sheer creamer alone. I finally decided to cut cream out of my coffee completely and to start drinking it straight black. I did not particularly love black coffee at that time. I thought it tasted way too bitter. However I knew coffee was not something I was going to give up and so I was determined to learn to drink it black and enjoy it. Those first few cups I have to admit were not enjoyable, but then the more I drank the more I started appreciating coffee in a whole new light. I began to learn to distinguish and appreciate the subtle differences of texture and smoothness in each cup. There is a world of difference in a light roast and a bold roast or between Colombian and Kona. All of those amazing taste differences were hidden to me before because I was dumping so much cream in that I was masking the true and beautiful taste of the coffee itself. Now, drinking coffee black is my absolute preferred method. I still will occasionally drink a cup of coffee with flavored creamer in it. I still think the flavors are wonderful, but I think that the pure taste of coffee is even better and most of the time that is the only taste that I want.