Chobani Cookies and Cream Creamer
As part my favorite flavor of everything, I knew that I had to get my hands on the Cookies and Cream flavor of Chobani's triple thread of limited batch summer releases. Cookies and cream has never struck me as a summer flavor but I'll take it. It seems like a simple enough flavor; just chocolate and creamy vanilla. But it's difficult to balance the flavors so that the chocolate doesn't overpower the vanilla. In my opinion, ice cream does this best. Oreos, of course, do it well if you don't deconstruct them (but let's be real, we all pull them apart). Everything else (cakes, cookies, ect) lands on a spectrum of fine to not even trying. It gets tough when everything is homogeneous to allow two distinct flavors room to shine especially when one acts as an enhancer to the other.
I was delighted to see that this creamer was in fact chocolate colored. I was disappointed previously when a chocolate bar flavored creamer was not chocolate colored. I like drinks that use color to indicate their flavor. If it's strawberry, and it's not pink, I don't want it. This creamer looked chocolatey and smelled chocolatey so I was worried that it would be overpoweringly chocolate but I will happily report that Chobani has managed to balance a nice chocolate flavor with vanilla. This creamer reminds me of the Hershey's Cookies and Cream Milk Shakes that I used to get as a child. They would be right next to the nestle chocolate milks in the refrigerated section at the gas station we always stopped at and it was my choice when they were out of my favorite gatorade. The Cookies and Cream creamer is not too sweet, just the right consistency, and I forgo judging the color of my coffee when the creamer isn't white. Like all Chobani flavors, it had the right consistency. Taste-wise, I wasn't impressed. The flavor just could not stand up to my coffee. It got lost and made my coffee taste watery. The same is true when I tried it in an iced coffee. Surprisingly, it tasted best after I watered down my coffee by about a quarter according to volume so that I could stretch the most recent pot I had brewed to last one more cup. I think this means I make my coffee too strong, but I'm not going to stop.
Going into trying this flavor, I was excited but ready to be disappointed. It doesn't mix well with my coffee and that's fine. If you make a strong cup like I do just water it down a little bit. If you usually make a medium or light roast then your experience will probably also be fine if you just add a little extra if it's not tasting right. I'm probably going easy on this flavor because I do like Cookies and Cream so much. It didn't deliver in the ways that really mattered, but it was nice to open my fridge and have it as an option.
