13 Vanilla Coffee Creamers, Ranked

Let's cut to the chase — if you're a fan of black coffee, this post isn't for you. Listen, I know there are some out there who believe coffee shouldn't be swimming in milk and cream, but if you're like me and can't go without, feel no shame. Still, even hardcore creamed coffee fanatics like myself know there are some creamers out there that aren't quite what they should be in terms of texture and flavor, making it hard to know which are truly worth the pick. It doesn't help that so many varieties exist; from inexpensive run-of-the-mill brands to seemingly fancier options featuring equally fancy price tags, it can be tough to know which creamers deserve a spot in your morning mug.

No need to worry, though. I've put store-bought vanilla creamers to the test so you don't have to. I'm sharing my unfiltered opinion about every vanilla creamer I could find at my local market and ranking them according to taste and texture. Keep in mind that pricing and availability may vary and that certain aspects, including cost, ingredients, and nutrition, though mentioned, will not play a significant role in the ranking. With that out of the way, stay tuned because l'm brewing up details related to the best and worst store-bought vanilla coffee creamers, coming up next. 

Splenda Sugar-Free French Vanilla Coffee Creamer is my least favorite out of the bunch, and for good reason. This miniature creamer comes in a tiny 8-ounce bottle for $1.22 at Walmart at the time of publication, though the larger 32-ounce option is also available for the staggering price of $6.49 per bottle. The creamer is sweetened with Splenda (which is different from stevia, by the way) and contains many of the usual additives, including mono- and diglycerides, artificial flavoring, and cellulose gum.​

I'll be honest and say I'm not surprised that Splenda Sugar-Free French Vanilla Coffee Creamer ended up ranking so low; I can't stand the taste of artificial sweetener, so its flavor turned my stomach. The taste of Splenda was so strong on this one that it made me sick. And though many coffee lovers might be tempted to purchase Splenda Sugar-Free French Vanilla Coffee Creamer on the basis of its low-calorie, keto-friendly claims, the truth is that other sugar-free vanilla creamers on this list sport similar nutrition stats and taste way better, making Splenda Sugar-Free French Vanilla Coffee Creamer a waste of money, in my opinion.

Despite being one of the most popular creamers on the market, Coffee Mate French Vanilla Coffee Creamer left me underwhelmed. I found it at Walmart at a little over $3.98 for a 32-ounce bottle. Like many creamers on the list, it contains no cream and instead features a laundry list of additives to make it, well, "creamy."

Coffee Mate French Vanilla Coffee Creamer features a texture fairly thicker than several other varieties on the list, but as previously stated, I didn't enjoy its flavor. Though very vanilla-forward, it doesn't taste genuinely so; the vanilla has an artificial taste to it that I found off-putting. That said, it does at least cream coffee well — despite its flavor, it did turn my coffee lusciously rich and light. 

With all things considered, Coffee Mate French Vanilla Coffee Creamer isn't one I'd recommend. Though decent, its flavor pales in comparison to most other vanilla creamers featured on this list.

There are so many confusing aspects about Nutpods Unsweetened Dairy-Free French Vanilla, I don't know where to start. Before I continue, I'd like to say that I fully understand that this creamer is unsweetened — at least, now I do. The creamer is priced at $4.97 per 25.4 ounces and is vegan, soy- and carrageenan-free, keto, and paleo-friendly. Even so, don't expect it to be void of additives, as some ingredients, like dipotassium phosphate, gellan gum, and acacia gum, remain, making this unsweetened creamer an option that isn't quite as clean as some of the others on the list. 

​I'll admit that I was initially thrown off by Nutpods Unsweetened Dairy-Free French Vanilla Creamer. I didn't realize it came sugarless, so you can imagine my surprise at first sip. I went ahead and added a touch of natural, unrefined sugar from my fridge (high-quality store-bought maple syrup, of course) and found that I was still disappointed. The vanilla came off bitter and unnatural, making my coffee taste oddly unpleasant. Oh, well. Though I love the concept of an unsweetened creamer, I can't recommend Nutpods Unsweetened Dairy-Free French Vanilla Creamer in good conscience.

I didn't expect to dislike Califia Farms Organic Vanilla Almond Creamer as much as I did. As its name would imply, this product is an organic creamer that comes at the stiff price of $6.49 per 25.4-ounce bottle. Its ingredient list is quite lovely; with only organic almond milk, baking soda, sugar, and natural flavor, and no additives anywhere in sight, I had high expectations for this dairy-free vanilla creamer. 

​Unfortunately, Califia Farms Organic Vanilla Almond Creamer failed my taste buds in several categories. Please note that I am not opposed to its almond milk base — I actually drink plain almond milk in my coffee every morning. That said, this almond milk creamer is very almond-forward, which, for me, is where it misses the mark. Califia Farms Organic Vanilla Almond Creamer tastes like almonds with little to no vanilla flavor and is also very thin. Its creaming capabilities are virtually nonexistent; it left my coffee almost as dark as it was when I brewed it. 

Did I hate Califia Farms Organic Vanilla Almond Creamer? No, but I wouldn't buy it again. For this price, you could purchase a creamer that's a lot tastier with equally impressive ingredients.

Natural Bliss Vanilla Liquid Dairy Coffee Creamer surprised me, though not in a good way. This creamer costs $3.48 per 16-ounce bottle, which is a little expensive considering that other 32-ounce offerings run around the same price. I had purchased this creamer years ago in an effort to avoid some of the usual additives found in traditional creamers; with only milk, cream, sugar, and natural flavor in the mix, Natural Bliss Vanilla Liquid Dairy Coffee Creamer seemed like a breath of fresh air ingredient-wise. ​

So, did Natural Bliss Vanilla Liquid Dairy Coffee Creamer taste as good as I remember? Not quite. Though I wouldn't label it as disgusting, it contains little to no flavor at all, much less the smooth taste of vanilla. Because of this, the bitterness of my coffee rang through (bitter coffee can be easily remedied by a touch of salt, by the way), leaving me to wonder if this creamer was even worth the purchase in the first place. To be frank, I would much rather have made my own two-ingredient homemade creamer — it's easy enough to do, and its flavor is much better.

Don't get me wrong — there are plenty of awesome Great Value grocery items out there that taste just as good, if not better, than brand-name, but this Walmart-branded creamer isn't one of them. Great Value French Vanilla Coffee Creamer comes at the humble price of $2.76 per 32 ounces at my local Walmart. It's laden with all the usual additives you'd expect to see in a typical coffee enhancer, and for those of you wondering, it contains no real cream.

Interestingly, Great Value French Vanilla Coffee Creamer tasted great on its own, so I really expected it to shine in my cup of coffee. It didn't. Not only did it hardly lighten my coffee (the brew remained quite dark), but it also didn't have the rich vanilla flavor that many of the other options had. And though I suppose its taste wasn't bad, it just wasn't what I expected given how much I tend to enjoy Great Value products. 

One thing I did appreciate about Great Value French Vanilla Coffee Creamer was that, despite containing artificial flavor, it didn't taste artificial; there was no jarringly bitter imitation-like aftertaste, which is more than I can say for some of the other brands on the list.

I found Kroger Zero Sugar French Vanilla Coffee Creamer for $2.79 at a nearby Pick 'n Save and didn't expect much. As you know by now, I don't enjoy the flavor of artificial sweetener. Add to that the fact that I'm not usually impressed with Kroger-branded generic products, and you can probably understand my concern. Nevertheless, I actually found Kroger Zero Sugar French Vanilla Coffee Creamer to be a decent option for the most part — it creams coffee well, is very vanilla-forward, and tastes good, though it does feature a slight artificial aftertaste. 

And though Kroger Zero Sugar French Vanilla Coffee Creamer tasted better than I imagined it would, I still wouldn't say this is my favorite sugar-free creamer. I actually prefer the upcoming Great Value sugar-free option over this one, mainly because of the Kroger creamer's slight artificial taste. Even so, if you happen to find yourself at Kroger and need a cheap sugar-free vanilla creamer quick, this is a decent option. It isn't the best on the market, but it'll do in a pinch.

Great Value Sugar-Free French Vanilla Coffee Creamer goes for the same price as its fellow Walmart-branded classic vanilla creamer counterpart at $2.76 per 32 ounces, though, surprisingly, I dug this option a lot more. Great Value Sugar-Free French Vanilla Coffee Creamer is sweetened with sucralose and a few other ingredients, including maltodextrin and acesulfame potassium, and contains many additives including carageenan, vegetable oil, and more.

​As mentioned, I enjoyed Great Value Sugar Free French Vanilla Coffee Creamer more than I did the original Great Value vanilla creamer, which, for me, was pretty shocking. It had a better overall flavor, without the sickly aftertaste that many artificial creamers give. The vanilla itself didn't taste fake either, and the texture of the creamer was nice and thick. It also lightened my coffee better than the original, making Great Value Sugar-Free French Vanilla Coffee Creamer a great alternative for those who'd rather skip the sweetness.

Coffee Mate Zero Sugar French Vanilla Coffee Creamer can be found for $3.98 for a 32-ounce bottle — a pretty decent price, if you ask me. Because of the trauma my taste buds endured at the first sip of the classic vanilla Coffee Mate, I assumed the sugar-free variety (containing sucralose, maltodextrin, and acesulfame potassium as sweeteners) would prove even worse. Interestingly, I found myself surprised, once again, by this sugarless option.

This creamer gives my coffee a decadently creamy texture with just a kiss of smooth vanilla. Does it have an aftertaste? Yes, but it isn't very noticeable, and there are other sugar-free vanilla creamer options on the list that are much worse. All in all, Coffee Mate Zero Sugar French Vanilla Flavored Coffee Creamer proves a wonderful option for a great-tasting, budget-friendly, sugar-free sip that I highly recommend over the original.

I found Good & Gather Organic Vanilla Coffee Creamer with a price tag quite higher than other 32-fluid-ounce creamers at $4.99 per bottle. It makes sense, though; it's one of the few organic creamers out there, and it also contains real cream, unlike the many "creamers" on the market that shockingly don't contain any cream at all.  

Adding to its allure, Good & Gather Organic Vanilla Coffee Creamer has a super minimal ingredients list. Expect nothing but organic milk, cream, sugar, and vanilla extract in your cup with no ambiguous "natural flavors" to have to worry about. Pretty awesome, right?​

Still, though Good & Gather Organic Vanilla Coffee Creamer tastes great, I'm not sure how it will suit some taste buds. It does a wonderful job creaming the coffee but has a very natural vanilla taste to it. Because of that, people who are used to the robust flavor of artificial vanilla and its sundry texture-boosting additives may find this organic grab boring. Thus, Good & Gather Organic Vanilla Coffee Creamer, though a great option in my book, still may not be everyone's cup of, um ... cream. 

Silk Dairy-Free Vanilla Almond Creamer might not seem like much at first blush, but it's a creamer you shouldn't sleep on. Priced at $4.90 per 32-ounce bottle at Walmart at the time of publication, I wasn't too excited to sample this almond milk pick. I think it's because I always put plain Silk Almond Milk in my coffee, so I guess this creamer just came off as too familiar. Even so, I found myself quite pleased with its flavor. Silk Dairy-Free Vanilla Almond Coffee Creamer is quite tasty and proved to be one of my favorites out of the bunch. 

Unlike the Califia almond milk vanilla creamer, Silk Dairy-Free Vanilla Almond Coffee Creamer has a nice, thick texture and doesn't take on the strong nutty flavors that sometimes accompany almond milk. The vanilla used is smooth and pleasant, yielding a taste very similar to other high-quality creamers on the market. Despite its positive characteristics, keep in mind that I am very used to adding non-dairy nut milks to my brew; this means that though Silk Dairy-Free Vanilla Almond Coffee Creamer works for me, it might not suit everyone. Either way, Silk Dairy-Free Vanilla Almond Coffee Creamer is a great contender for a dairy-free option, especially for those looking to avoid milk-derived ingredients.

International Delight French Vanilla Coffee Creamer is a coffee enhancer similar to Coffee Mate in terms of popularity; I've seen it virtually everywhere. It comes at a low price of $3.77 per 32-ounce bottle at Walmart and is chock-full of additives with no real cream, similar to many of its competitors. Though comparable in price and ingredients, I found International Delight French Vanilla Coffee Creamer to be different from others in its category — it is, quite possibly, one of the best-tasting affordable creamers on the market. 

No, International Delight French Vanilla Coffee Creamer isn't minimalistic in terms of ingredients, and yes, that matters to me. However, if you're a person who isn't bothered by certain ingredients and is looking for a budget-friendly option to add irresistible creaminess to your coffee, this creamer is the way to go. It turned my coffee luxuriously smooth while simultaneously infusing it with tons of scrumptious vanilla flavor. It had none of that artificial taste that the classic Coffee Mate possessed, yet it's still full-bodied enough to enjoy. Out of the cheaper creamer options on the market, International Delight French Vanilla Coffee Creamer is one of the best in its class.

Coming in at No.1, Chobani Vanilla Coffee Creamer might be expensive at $6.24 per 32-ounce bottle, but to me, it's worth it. The creamer is one of the few to contain real cream, along with pristine ingredients; expect only milk, cream, natural flavor, sugar, and vanilla extract inside. It's rich and features loads of good flavor, with its natural vanilla being neither too robust nor too subtle.

Speaking of additives, Chobani Vanilla Coffee Creamer does an excellent job making my coffee creamy using only the natural ingredients it's graced with. I was surprised to see my brew become so light and luscious given the absence of common additives usually utilized in other creamer varieties to add thickness and texture. Thus, if you're a coffee lover who appreciates clean and high-quality ingredients as much as I do, Chobani Vanilla Coffee Creamer is one to grab. It's an all-around high-quality creamer worthy of five stars in almost every category.

The vanilla coffee creamers featured in this article were ranked according to their overall creaming abilities and pleasing vanilla flavor. Although not determining factors, other aspects, including ingredients, nutrition, and pricing, were sometimes mentioned. 

For the sake of consistency, I carefully measured each creamer and added it to a set amount of coffee for the most accurate comparison. The thoughts expressed in this article are my own, and as always, prices and availability are subject to change.