Williamston woman led a coffee creamer crusade

This is the story of a woman's love for her morning coffee creamer.

It's a story of painful separation and unflinching devotion.

And it has a happy ending.

Judy Riedel Tugen began drinking Coffee-mate Amaretto two decades ago. Once she found it, she never wavered, never flirted with other flavors of the nondairy liquid creamer, with hazelnut or Italian sweet creme.

"I loved amaretto Coffee-mate, and I’m not alone," said Tugen, who lives in Williamston. "It has a very comforting, soothing, almond and cherry flavor that's just so great to wake up to. There's nothing like it.

Then, in January of last year, she went shopping at the Okemos Meijer and found that they were out of Coffee-mate Amaretto. The store gave her a rain check. When she went back a week later, she was told the amaretto flavor was being discontinued. 

Tugen was shocked. She was heartbroken.

"There are a lot of fans that drank it for many, many years..." she said. "I very much wanted amaretto to come back."

And she didn't give up.

She contacted Coffee-mate, she said, and they told her the decision to discontinue the amaretto flavor had not been made lightly.

"They said sales had been down across the country, so sadly, they had to make that decision," Tugen said. "My hope was to keep amaretto flavor in front of them, keep it on their minds, to let them know there were a lot of us that were going to miss it."

The 73-year-old retiree petitioned Coffee-mate via social media. She made phone calls. She wrote emails and letters.

Tugen found the Bring Back Amaretto Coffee-mate Creamer Facebook page, which launched on Valentines Day 2015. She followed it. She began posting information on how to contact Coffee-mate. She encouraged others. She did such a good job that she was asked to take over as page administrator.

"When my mom took over as administrator of the Facebook page, it was at around 300 followers," said Melanie Zaremba, Tugen's daughter, "Over the course of her engaging with the page, it’s now over 1,300."

Tugen contacted Coffee-mate every week. She invited others to join her. She rallied the group with posts instructing them to call Coffee-mate’s 800 number, post on their Facebook page, and recruit more fans. She checked the page every day, read the comments, added them up.

"Coffee-mate has wonderful people that answer their phones," Tugen said. "At one time their office was small enough that the second I called in they knew who I was. They’d say, 'Hi Judy.'"

In the meantime, Tugen tried, in vain, to replace her amaretto creamer.

"I tried being very creative, and I did buy other brands, but nothing compared to Coffee-mate Amaretto," she said. "No one could find anything else to substitute for it. I’ve gotten comment after comment on that Facebook page on how unique and wonderful it was.  At least one person said 'I can’t even drink coffee anymore because I miss my amaretto.'"

Tugen still drank coffee, but resorted to adding milk and sugar.

After "1,519 phone calls, 2,337 FB posts, 1,868 emails, 17 passionate letters," Coffee-mate heard Tugen loud and clear, according to a video on the Bring Back Amaretto Coffee-mate Creamer Facebook page.

“We made the tough decision to discontinue Coffee-mate Amaretto in January 2015," said Daniel Jhung, director of marketing at Coffee-mate. "Almost immediately, we received thousands of consumer requests across social media, phone and email asking us to bring back the flavor – but none were as passionate as Judy. We wanted to thank Judy for her tireless effort and passion for Coffee-mate. Inspired by her passion, we are bringing back Coffee-mate Amaretto at select retailers in the U.S. through the end of the year.”

The company contacted Zaremba, a communications director at Michigan State University, and worked with her to coordinate a surprise gathering for Tugen and her friends at the Harrison Roadhouse, where she would learn that her favorite flavor would be coming back for a limited time because of her efforts.

They wanted Tugen to have the first taste.

Zaremba had to cook up a ruse to get her mother to attend, saying that she and her team at MSU were being honored. Zaremba's director and coworkers attended to help her pull it off, along with a few friends.

"She came in thinking she was celebrating me," Zaremba said.

As they sat around a table, a waiter, who was actually an actor, poured coffee. After pouring Tugen's coffee last, he apologized, saying he had forgotten something and retreated to the kitchen.

He returned with a bottle of Coffee-mate Amaretto creamer on a silver platter.

"Mom was engaging and talking with the folks at the table and I said, 'Mom, what's that?'" Zaremba said. "She looked up, and her jaw just dropped open."

The first sip was every bit as wonderful as she had remembered. "It was, as one person put it, dreamy and heavenly," she laughed. "I loved it."

"The day was kind of a blur. I think my jaw started hurting from smiling so much. Everybody that came, all of the folks from Coffee-mate marketing and other departments, from different states, I wish I could name all of them, and they give good hugs too."

Tugen is quick to give credit where credit is due.

"I had a large group backing me, and they went step by step with me," she said. I’m just a little person in this whole thing. I just kept track of it all, but people kept joining and joining and joining."

And what is it about the amaretto flavor that made Tugen and others put in so much effort to get it back?

"I started drinking it when I worked for AT&T in the 1990s and just got hooked," Tugen said. "I've had people tell me they drove 45 miles to find it. But I sympathize because it's such a unique and different and special flavor. There just isn't anything else that can compare to it. No one makes it as good as Coffee-mate."

Contact Vickki Dozier at (517) 267-1342 or vdozier@lsj.com. Follow her on Twitter@vickkiD.