I like cream in my coffee (light cream or half and half) but sometimes run out. Is there any good shelf stable creamer I can keep unrefrigerated on the pantry shelf? Thanks!
It’s all over the place here in Germany (Kondensmilch), but i’ve not seen anything like it stateside.
If you mean liquid cream, TJ’s has a a boxed shelf stable heavy cream (but they’ve been out of it for ages). Nestle has cans of shelf stable light cream —“Media Crema “— which I’ve bought in my local grocery. Both are about 8 ozs The TJs is thickened with carrageenan; I’ve never used my Nestles. It was a pandemic purchase. Nestle’s site says it’s 25% milk fat.
I think both have to be refrigerated after opening.
I’m going to look for this it the Hispanic grocery store where I occasionally shop…thanks!
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I just bought some powdered heavy cream online. It says you can mix with powdered milk for a creamer similar to half and half. I prefer something I don’t have to refrigerate after opening.
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How about these small containers like you see at hotels and restaurants. Shelf stable.
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I find that very useful. It’s a good idea to mix up a batch the night before you need it, 'cause it’s hard to get the right consistency unless it sits for a while.
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That’s going to be hard to find in a liquid. Sweetened condensed milk might be ok open for a week or 2.
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I have a jar of that, too.
Baileys
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I always refrigerate opened sweetened condensed milk.
There are pouches of Eagle Brand as well as cans, in the States now.
I keep unsweetened canned evaporated milk on hand. I refrigerate that after opening, and use it within 3 days.
I used to keep powdered Coffee Mate on hand.
We have these in the office. Our office manager is a bit of an ingredient snob and hates the Coffee Mate creamer stuff.
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As the label recommends, though the almost 50% added sugar will inhibit growth of a lot of things.
I did some available water testing on dulce de leches (cooked in the can so) for another chocolatier, iirc it was not in the low enough to be microbially stable range, but in the good for a few weeks at room temp range.
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Good to know.
The problem I’ve had with powdered creamers is clumping over time - becomes so hard you have to use a utensil to break it up. But it takes me over a year, probably, to use up a whole cannister and it does seem to lose some taste from exposure to the air and moisture.
There are the tear-open packets of powdered creamers, too. Each packet, I presume, would stay fresh and powdery.
If sweetened condensed milk is not too sweet, there is La Lechera, also from Nestle:
All Our Products | Official LA LECHERA® (goodnes.com)
The smaller sized cans you wouldn’t have to worry about using up as fast but I’ve left the squeeze bottle out on the counter until used up and not detected any problems. Too sweet for me, though.
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You can also get a box of land o lakes Mini Moos - little individual servings of half and half - they have a shelf life of several months. I get them sometimes, but I usually get a pint of fresh table (light) cream because I like it better than half and half in my coffee.
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In desperate times, I have been known to lighten (and sweeten) my coffee with… whipped cream from the can. I prefer milk - not cream or even half-and-half - but we do occasionally run out, and uncaffeinated me is not a joy to be around in the mornings. 
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I’ve used ice cream. On occasion, the white stripe from a tub of Neapolitan.
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I ONLY use milk for my morning coffee or when I bake. And I buy “extra heavy milk” here in Japan which is 4.4% fat as opposed to standard milk here which is 3% fat.
Because I use so little milk, if I buy 1L of milk, it will spoil before I can finish it. I could buy a 500ml container and I MAY finish it before it goes bad, the price of a 500ml container is much higher than 1/2 of the 1L container.
So about 18 months ago I experimented with buying the 1L and dividing it into 4 containers of 250ml and freezing them in hopes that I could use the milk after it was defrosted without it separating (it must be refrigerated, though). Thankfully it has worked out perfectly and I can easily finish 250ml without it spoiling. I put the last 250ml in a container with a different colored lid so that I remember to buy a new 1L container before I run out of milk.
I don’t know if this will work with milk in other countries, but it works perfectly for me and I am so satisfied with myself for coming up with a method that works for me (you can slightly shake or mix it before use if the separation is a concern for you.)
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I freeze milk in a small bottle before I leave for a trip so I have it for tea or coffee the morning I get back without a trip to the store. Cream breaks when frozen, milk recombines perfectly.
To your point about milk spoiling before I could finish it (I also use it only for coffee or tea), I started using glass containers and that stopped the spoilage completely: I decant the milk into 2 glass bottles, and they stay so much colder than the plastic or cardboard the milk is sold in, that I haven’t had a problem since,
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