Trader Joe's Brown Sugar Oat Creamer Recipe
A copy of Trader Joe's brown sugar oat creamer: brown sugar syrup, oat milk, vanilla and a pinch of salt. Ten minutes of work, without dairy.
- Total
- 25 min
- Serves
- 32
- Calories (est.)
- 20
Trader Joe's brown sugar oat creamer is a non-dairy creamer made from oats, sugar, sunflower oil and a little brown sugar, with 25 calories in a tablespoon. For a homemade version, dissolve half a cup of brown sugar in a quarter cup of water, let the syrup cool, and shake it with a cup and a half of oat milk, vanilla and a pinch of salt.
What is in Trader Joe's brown sugar oat creamer
The product page calls it Non-Dairy Oat Creamer, Brown Sugar Flavor: $1.99 for 16 fluid ounces in October 2026, listed as vegan, dairy free and gluten free. The ingredients are water, hydrolyzed oats, sugar and sunflower oil, then, at 2 percent or less, brown sugar, pea protein, sunflower lecithin, gellan gum, salt, potassium citrate, sodium bicarbonate and natural flavours. A tablespoon has 25 calories and 4 grams of sugars, and the carton holds about 32 servings. The copy below comes to about 20 calories per tablespoon by USDA figures.
The recipe below is a reconstruction from that list, not Trader Joe's formula, and MakeFoodLovely is not connected with Trader Joe's.
Recipe
Brown Sugar Oat Creamer
A reconstruction of Trader Joe's Non-Dairy Oat Creamer, Brown Sugar Flavor — brown sugar syrup, oat milk, vanilla and salt. About 2 cups, or 32 servings of one tablespoon.
- Prep
- 5 min
- Cook
- 5 min
- Total
- 25 min
- Serves
- 32
- Cuisine
- American
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
- 1/4 cup water
- 1 1/2 cups oat milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Heat the brown sugar and the water in a small saucepan over medium heat, stirring, until the sugar has dissolved and the syrup simmers, about 3 minutes.
- Take the pan off the heat and let the syrup cool for 15 minutes.
- Pour the syrup into a jar or bottle, add the oat milk, the vanilla and the salt, close it and shake.
- Refrigerate, and shake again before each use.
Nutrition
- Calories:
- 20
Calculated from the ingredient quantities above using the USDA FoodData Central database, then divided by the number of servings. It is an estimate and will vary with the exact products you use.
Why the copy starts from oat milk, not rolled oats
The carton lists hydrolyzed oats. Wikipedia's article on oat milk describes the step: the slurry of milled oats and warm water is treated with enzymes and heat, and amylases break the starch down into smaller pieces.
Oats blended with water in a kitchen keep their starch. In hot coffee that starch swells, and the creamer turns thick and slimy. Oat milk from a carton has been through the enzyme step, so the copy starts there.
Light or dark brown sugar
Brown sugar is white sugar with molasses in it, and dark brown sugar has more. With dark brown sugar the creamer is darker and the molasses note stronger; the amounts stay the same.
A quarter teaspoon of ground cinnamon, simmered with the syrup, takes it in the direction of the brown sugar shaken espresso creamer.
Thinner than the carton
The carton lists sunflower oil together with sunflower lecithin and gellan gum. This copy has no added oil, which is why it is thinner. An oat milk whose ingredient list includes oil, such as those labelled barista, narrows the gap. The sweetness is close: about 3.5 grams of sugar per tablespoon against the 4 on the carton.
The creamer keeps a week in the refrigerator at most, and not past the date on the oat milk. The syrup sinks, so shake the jar before pouring.
Trader Joe's other creamers
In October 2026 a search for creamer on Trader Joe's website showed nine products. The website notes that it does not show every product the stores carry.
| Creamer | Size | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Non-Dairy Oat Creamer, Brown Sugar Flavor | 16 fl oz | $1.99 |
| Non-Dairy Cinnamon Bun Oat Creamer | 16 fl oz | $1.99 |
| Non-Dairy Oat Creamer, Gingerbread | 16 fl oz | $1.99 |
| Organic Sweet Cream Creamer | 16 fl oz | $2.99 |
| Organic Spiced Vanilla Creamer | 16 fl oz | $2.99 |
| Organic Pumpkin Pie Spice Creamer | 16 fl oz | $2.99 |
| Caramel Macchiato Creamer | 32 fl oz | $3.99 |
| Vanilla Flavored Cold Foam Creamer | 15 oz | $4.49 |
| Salted Maple Cold Foam Creamer | 15 oz | $4.49 |
For a creamer that froths like the last two, see the cold foam creamer. Other non-dairy creamers on this site are the Starbucks lavender creamer, also on oat milk, and the almond creamer.
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