Most waitresses around here would get it. We’re surprisingly cosmopolitan around here, understanding both East Coast AND West Coast. Some might give you decaf with sugar.
Black coffee means nothing extra, everywhere I’ve lived (South, Midwest, Great Plains, East Coast).
One would greatly offend the purists who avoid the faintest trace of an adulterant by suggesting that sweetened coffee without cream counts as “black”.
[ul]
[li]Coffee with nothing added: Black[/li][li]Coffee with no cream WITH sugar: Black . . . like my men[/li][/ul]
Sweet from sugar. When someone offers you coffee around here, they ask, “How much sugar?” None at all isn’t an option, although sugar substitutes are acceptable for the health-conscious.
My friends probably defaulted to “some,” though I’m not a guy who likes sugar. It was the best cuppa (or three) I ever had.
Waiting tables, if people asked for black, they got a cup of plain black coffee. The sugars were at the table in packets, and I refrained from bringing them cream (half and half).
Curiously, this means it depends on the custom of the establishment. Serving a table black coffee in a waiting situation is standard, it’s easier to bring cream or sugar or have it available at the table. In a restaurant, all coffee is black.
black coffee means no additives - no sugar, no cream.
It separates us cafe-connoisseurs who enjoy coffee for what it is from the heathens.
In some places, all you will hear is, "Regular or Decaf?. That it is black, is understood.
Please. Making coffee without sugar is like baking a cake without sugar.
Waiting Dinner Service we brought them a sugarbowl (packetholder) and tiny ceramic creamer* filled with half and half, upon request of sugar and cream with their coffe. Neither for Black. We would query, as standard ,“Cream and Sugar?” Black was a cuppa Joe.
- Which We had made up in the single hour of waiter prep hell we had to prepare for the onslaught (regardless of the number of reservations.). We would fill the creamers with the half and half and have them in the reach-in next to the desserts, covered in saran and ready to go.
Waiting Braekfast and Lunch service with different place settings and motif, we had the sugarbowl on the table, cream was brought.
Waiting Room Service it was a standard request, “Cream and Sugar?”. We could bring you a pot, a half a pot, or 2 cups in room service options.? We provided the condiments per request.
Oh, and in Banquets, we provided coffee service… we filled the cups, fresh (reg or decaf)… then provided insulated “full pot” carafes of regular and decaf at leisure… as default, we placed a minimum of 3 creamers per 8 top, and 3 sugarbowls, standard.
Around here (I live near Seattle), one doesn’t order black coffee. Ordering coffee requires at least half an hour and 3 dozen chemicals, some of which I’m sure are made up.
But black refers to the color, not the content. If you looked at a cup of coffee which had cream, you’d know it has something. If you have two cups of coffee, one with sugar, one without and nothing else added, both would be black. One would just be sweetened, and the other not.
In Tim Horton’s parlance, “black” is straight coffee - no sugar, no milk/cream.
Since most Canadians are quite fluent in Tim Hortonese, I’d be awfully surprised if I asked for my coffee black and got a cup of sweet coffee instead. Ugh.
(Though, since I drink mine with both cream and sugar, my order is a “regular” and I’m unlikely to ever run into that scenario)
My order of “Black, no sugar” is designed to cut down on the conversation during the order process.
When I used to order just “Black,” the counterperson would ask “Sugar?” and I would say “No.”
(I do not go to “coffee” shops which cater to those who want a syrupy, foamy coffee-based drink. Greek diner coffee is my preference if I have to buy it.)
Just to add to the confusion, I was at a poplular donut chain to order a cup of coffee at the drive thru. The voice from the box asked me if I wanted to try one of their ice-whipped-cream-chocolate-sprinkled coffees, and I responded with, “No thanks, just a regular coffee” meaning black, no cream, no sugar.
When I pulled up, I noticed the coffee smelled a little off, and there was a drip on the lid that looked like coffee with cream. I asked the guy working the window if what he’d handed me was a plain black coffee, and he said, “No, I handed you a coffee regular - coffee with cream and sugar.” Apparently it’s a northeastern thing.
For me, black coffee is coffee with nothing added. Except in a Dunkin’, where “black coffee, please” means, “ask me six times and then look at me, surprised, when I confirm that I do not want sugar.”
There may be no consensus, but there is a correct answer. People in different regions could call coffee with tree bark in it “Black,” but that would be a bastardization of the term; so it is a bastardization to call coffee with only sugar “Black” even though it is in fact that color.
When we talk about coffee in terms of its color “Black,” we are referring to more than just its color, and this is the beauty of language. Language allows us to say what we mean in a clear manner, even if the ignorant masses (not stupid, just ignorant) cloud the facts with a team of like-minded wrong-way thinking.
When someone asks how you want your coffee and you say, “Black,” you are in fact asking for coffee with nothing else in it, but that’s too easy. Let me make a case.
If you say “A little sugar” it is clear you want a little sugar, though the exact amount is up for interpretation. You will most likely add your own sugar anyway. This sounds like you are a formal guest at someone’s house and they are going to serve you coffee. Regardless, “A little sugar,” or “A teaspoon of sugar” is quite clear.
If you say, “One cream,” you have made your request clearly and successfully. You will likely get your coffee as desired, though you still won’t know how clean the cup really was when pulled from the cupboard.
If you say “Cream and sugar,” in any of its myriad of variations, you’ll likely get both ingredients in your coffee, and you can then enjoy some nice conversation.
If you say, “Black,” You have left out all ingredients in your request. You simply want your coffee straight so you can enjoy the taste of the coffee, something impossible to do when adulterated.
When people now claim that “Black with sugar” is still legitimately “Black” coffee, I would say that they are correct in terms of color, but we see wasted speech, a bit of irrelevance. The color of the coffee in this case has no bearing on how you want your drink. We could say that we want our coffee wet, but that would be ridiculous. The fact that the coffee is black is just as ridiculous a point to make. The person putting a single sugar cube in your coffee can plainly see that there are no colors in the coffee. It is obviously black, wet, and (hopefully) hot.
Such pointless commentary is why people coined the term, “Captain Obvious.”
I can wink at someone and let them know I think they are cute. I can wink at someone and let them know I am just kidding. By the same token, we can say that coffee is “Black” and be referring to more than just the color of the coffee. We can also be referring to a lack of ingredients.
Forgetting about sitting down to order–thinking only in terms of the question for the debate, it isn’t fair that the ignorant force those in the know to specify what they mean by black. If you want to say the word “black” when you order coffee with sugar, for some strange reason, then go ahead, but don’t make me specify “Black, no sugar.” I choose to say what I mean without the superfluous. The next thing you know, I’ll have to say, “Black, no sugar, no flavoring, no anything else Starbucks might add that doesn’t have a color” just because there are/may be a multitude of ingredients that trend, but don’t add color to my coffee.
If “Black” coffee is not sufficient to indicate “No ingredients,” then it really doesn’t mean anything at all. Think about it. If “Black” could mean “Nothing but coffee” and it could mean, “Black with sugar,” then you would have to clarify what you mean by “Black” which would mean that “Black” is not clear by itself; therefore if “Black” is intended to be clear and complete, it must have a single meaning. Since “Black” does not state “sugar” outright, and since “sugar” only requires the word “sugar” to be requested," then “Black” must mean “nothing added”…and it does!
D’ya hear that? That’s the sound of entire swathes of the country not giving a shit about what you think black coffee should mean.
To help clarify, I think Inner’s post is mainly about the fact that this thread is about 4 years old and we may not have needed it resurrected for that guy to share his thoughts.
No, my post is about the fact that it’s fine to say that in one’s dialect or area a given expression means X and never Y but asserting that said expression should or does only mean X and anyone who uses it to mean Y is wrong is arrogant and untrue, to boot.