For the Love of Cream

Justin and I spent our honeymoon in Belize, and as is true of most of our vacations, one of the things we look back on most fondly is the food. Or, in this particular case, the breakfasts. I mean, let's be honest here: is there much that's better in this world than a delicious, filling breakfast accompanied by a cup of coffee with some honest-to-God cream - not milk, not non-dairy creamer, but heavy, heavenly cream? The kind that won't fully dissolve in your coffee, but that instead lingers in pools and eddies on the surface, marbleizing it with a warm caramel color? Yeah, I didn't think so.
Above, heavy cream from local Hillcrest Dairy. In terms of quality, it's far above anything you can buy in a chain supermarket: it's extremely thick and slightly sweet, which makes it perfect for whipping. In fact, we whipped some up for our strawberry shortcakes a couple weeks ago. I greedily reserved a half-pint or so for my morning coffee, and guarded it from the cats as best I could. As you can see, Leo was eyeing it knowingly.

Of course, compared to the cream we were served at Victoria House in Belize, the cream from Hillcrest Dairy looked pale and sickly. It wasn't, of course. It was wonderful. But I suspect the cream on Ambergris Caye comes straight from the farm, and that it came to us unpasteurized. You can see the difference in color between the two photos - the Hillcrest cream was an off-white color (not yellow, as the picture suggests), while the cream from Victoria House had almost a golden tone. It was much thicker, too, and served to us next to a ramekin of pure cane sugar, the combination of which was amazing in my coffee.

EDIT: Justin talked to his parents last night, and apparently the sweetness and golden color of the Belize cream is not normal. Their best guest was that it's either Guernsey milk or... well, a mixture of cream and cane sugar. I'm not sure what it is, I just know it was delicious.