You Know What I Can't Stand? Almond Milk.

Tired it once before; didn't like it, decided I wouldn't try it again.  But several weeks ago some anonymous co-worker left both a bottle of store-bought cold brew and Irish creme creamer with "Help Yourself!" paper signs taped to them.  Me, not wanting to pass up free liquids, took them.

I kept the Irish creme creamer at work to use for the coffee I get there.  But the cold brew I took home.  I had tried it once -- could take it or leave it.  And I thought I could drink it "neat" at least to taste how it truly is.  But I succumbed to my original thought that all coffee tastes better with creamer in it, and lots of it.  Hell, I don't really know if I like the taste of black coffee.

That's when I decided to try again with better-for-you creamer.  I have the real/good kinds at work, but a little bottle of, for example, oat milk creamer (which I tried for a taste test and came away mighty impressed) couldn't hurt.  I might even like it.  So I went to Target to find unconventional creamer, and I saw vanilla almond milk creamer, which I think I had before.  So I bought it.

I won't say I regret it.  But the creamer tastes stale.  And it overwhelms any flavor from the coffee by replacing it with something that, if you could see it, probably would have mold on it.  And no, the perceived benefit of drinking healthier stuff isn't worth it.

Still, I persevered.  I poured a bunch of it down into the cold brew a couple times, and even though I liked the taste of the cold brew by itself, I decided to fill the other half of my cup with this vanilla almond milk creamer whenever I could.  It actually didn't taste bad in the cold brew.  Which makes me wonder how it makes my work coffee taste so off.

And I should go back to an earlier part of my story and remind you that I bought almond milk when I taste-tested oat milk, which, if I recall correctly, tasted better than almond milk.  But I didn't see any oat milk creamer.  Which makes me think I should push the issue next time I need creamer, because I think that when it comes to almond milk, fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me.