Product Faceoff! Trader Joe’s Soy Milk Creamer vs. Trader Joe’s half & half

This week I compared coffee creamers. As an avid coffee drinker (and the sole lactose-tolerant writer of this blog), I was very interested to find out if soy milk creamer tastes similar to my usual staple, half & half. Below are the results!

Price
Soy creamer - $1.49 – 1 pint, 16 oz

Half & half - $1.29 – 1 pint, 16 oz

Winner of Price category: Although the regular half & half is 20 cents less, I feel the 20 cent markup on soy creamer is worth the price to pay for a dairy-free alternative.

Taste
Soy creamer – unfortunately I was not happy with the taste of soy creamer. It took over the taste of my usually delightful caramel vanilla coffee. Even with the coffee cup sitting on a table far away from me, all I could smell was the creamer. It was very obvious this was a dairy-free substitute.

Half & half – the regular stuff didn’t disappoint in this category. It blended in perfectly with my caramel vanilla and didn’t overpower the coffee taste. It was a perfect compliment to my freshly brewed caramel vanilla coffee.

Winner of Taste category: This was not a close call – regular half & half wins the taste category

Nutrition Info
Soy creamer - 15 calories for a 1 tbsp serving
1.5 grams fat, 1 gram carbs, 0 for every other nutritional category

Half & half - 40 calories for a 2 tbsp serving
3 grams fat, 2 grams saturated fat, 15 mg cholesterol, 15 mg sodium, 1 gram carbs, 1 gram sugar, 2% Vitamin A, 4% Calcium

Winner of Nutrition info: Soy creamer appears to be the winner here since it doesn’t contain saturated fat or cholesterol. It is worth mentioning that I needed to use more soy creamer to get my coffee as “light” as I normally take it. I had to use 2 servings to get there, so the calories between the two were practically the same for me.

Accessibility
Both were from Trader Joe’s - Available at any Trader Joe’s location. As of July 2011, Trader Joe’s has 361 stores in 29 states and Washington, D.C.

Winner of Accessibility category: It’s a tie

Texture
Soy creamer – slightly thicker than the regular stuff, also left a slight film in my coffee cup. It also took more soy creamer to make my coffee as “light” as I normally like it.

Half & half – it took less half & half to get my coffee “light”. Thinner than its soy counterpart & doesn’t leave a film in my cup.

Winner of Texture category: Half & half all the way

Final Results: This is no surprise – I couldn’t get past the taste and smell of soy creamer, so half & half is clearly the winner. Although the price is practically the same, I could not overlook soy creamer’s disappointment in the taste and texture categories. Maybe I picked the wrong dairy-free substitute for my Product Faceoff. What dairy-free coffee creamers do you swear by? We would love to hear about them. Leave your comments below!