International Delight's Worst Creamer Is Too Sweet To Stomach

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If we wanted to stir a sugar packet into our cup of Joe, we would. When foodies shell out for a bottle of creamer, they should be able to expect a little more from it. A good coffee creamer should be rich and luxurious. Alas, the cup of coffee that resulted from adding a splash of International Delight hazelnut creamer was such a sugar bomb as to be basically undrinkable — which is why, in Tasting Table's ranking of five International Delight coffee creamers, the brand's hazelnut flavor landed solidly last.

Hazelnut coffee admittedly gets a bad rap, and this product certainly isn't helping the case. We took care not to overdo it on the creamer, either. To conduct our taste-test, we stirred once tablespoon of each creamer flavor into a cup of Nespresso-brewed coffee, then chilled it with ice. Yet, as we mentioned in our review, the cloying sweetness overpowered our coffee despite the dilution from the ice we added. While the nose delivers, the off-balance palate flops. Quoth our reviewer, "Take a whiff of this creamer, and you do, in fact, get a slight nutty aroma that smells like it would taste good [...] it also has a strange, artificial funkiness to it. The nutty complexity that you might expect is flat and forced." Customer reviews posted to the official International Delight website give the hazelnut creamer an average rating of 2.7 out of 5 stars for quality and 2.6 out of 5 stars for value (not great).

It's worth noting that super-fans of hazelnut-flavored coffee will probably find something to like here. After all, we named this International Delight creamer as one of the seven absolute best hazelnut coffee creamers foodies can find in grocery stores for its intense "hazelnut flavor, sweetness level, and creamy texture." In that respect, this bold creamer delivers ... on flavor, anyway. The texture is another story.

One Reddit thread notes that a common issue across multiple flavors of International Delight creamers is a tendency to take on a chunky, curdled texture, even while retaining a good smell and remaining well within the printed expiration date. Customer reviews on International Delight website maintain the gloopy quality issue, writing, "[T]he creamer itself seems to slide out of the bottle in a slimy mucus state that lands in my coffee cup and immediately sinks to the bottom. It has like a yolk consistency [...] brand new creamer from the store should not be like this." 

Elsewhere online, Walmart reviewers say the "artificial product" "Leaves [a] nasty chemical taste in your mouth. And you can tell it's gotta be artificially flavored." Per the nutrition label, after water, the top two ingredients are sugar and palm oil, and the word "hazelnut" is nowhere to be found. By our count, java-lovers are better off sticking to International Delight's Almond Joy creamer, the flavor which took first place in our ranking for its unique coconut note.