# How did you get into coffee? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** coffee\ **Created:** [July 15, 2015, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-you-get-into-coffee/725256 "2015-07-15T19:15:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2015, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-you-get-into-coffee/725256/21 "2015-07-15T21:51:02Z")
I sipped coffee with milk from a saucer, when I was sitting in my Great Grandmother’s lap, before I went to Kindergarten. Later, my Dad got a job with Bunn Restaurant Equipment. Coffeemakers were all but unknown in the home, at the time. Dad bought a one-pot model–the kind used in snack shops. Mom was the first on the block to own a coffeemaker, & she invited all the ladies in the neighborhood by, to show off. After that it was : “Have some coffee, kid.”. ---
**Author:** ![Chicken\_Fingers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Chicken\_Fingers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chicken_Fingers)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2015, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-you-get-into-coffee/725256/22 "2015-07-15T22:04:41Z")
I always loved the flavor of coffee from the time I was so little I had to sneak it, so I don’t know how to tell someone to get to like the flavor. It’s no big loss if you don’t ever like it or drink it. ---
**Author:** ![FairyChatMom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fairychatmom/32/21906_2.png) [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2015, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-you-get-into-coffee/725256/23 "2015-07-15T22:13:53Z")
My mom let us try coffee when we were teens. TOOOOOOOO bitter, so I never got into it. When I was in the Navy deployed to Sicily, I had cappuccino and espresso a few times in local restaurants, but it really didn’t do anything for me. Frankly, the only way I have coffee is when it’s been turned into Kahlua and I mix it with cream and amaretto. I prefer to get my caffeine the way God intended - from Diet Coke! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![D\_Odds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/d_odds/32/2882_2.png) [@D\_Odds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D_Odds)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2015, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-you-get-into-coffee/725256/24 "2015-07-15T22:20:04Z")
At least you didn’t say Tab. ---
**Author:** ![Rushgeekgirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rushgeekgirl/32/3715_2.png) [@Rushgeekgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rushgeekgirl)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2015, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-you-get-into-coffee/725256/25 "2015-07-15T22:23:45Z")
I didn’t drink it until I was in my early thirties working construction. Hot coffee on a cold worksite was a treasure. I never developed a taste for brewed though, even though that’s what I had for a few years when my boss brought the thermos. I like instant Folgers. Spoonful of instant, a spoonful of sugar or Equal and I’m a happy girl. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2015, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-you-get-into-coffee/725256/26 "2015-07-15T22:40:15Z")
I got into black coffee when I was anorexic. I later discovered I love coffee with real cream and Sweet ‘n’ Low. ---
**Author:** ![snowthx](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowthx/32/10660_2.png) [@snowthx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snowthx)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2015, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-you-get-into-coffee/725256/27 "2015-07-15T22:43:02Z")
I did not drink coffee until my late 20s early 30s. My dad would always brew a pot for he and mom in the mornings. He ground the beans each morning and did pour-over with a Melita #6 cone. He selected 3 different beans from Cost Plus or Pier 1 (I don’t remember) and mixed them by hand in a bowl at home. This was before Starbucks. I think he thought he was a coffee aficionado. The whole thing was a ritual for him. Anyway, when I was visiting them as an adult I would try a cup just because it was there and it was what they had with breakfast. I eventually developed a taste for it myself, and asked him to show me how it was done. Et voila - I became hooked myself. Today I get decent whole beans from Peets (Guatemala) and just grind and pour-over one cup at a time (I also French Press once in a while). I am the only coffee drinker in my home, and a lb of gourmet beans lasts a few weeks. The cost is about 35 cents per cup, and is far better and cheaper than buying it at 'bucks or any other outlet. I agree with the above posts about starting-off with a lighter brew. IMHO adding a lot of sugar and cream usually means covering-up bad coffee, or you just don’t like coffee flavor all that much, altho that can be a way to introduce ones self to coffee. Side note: After dad died, one of his items I have kept to this day is his coffee pot. I think he would have liked to have me spread his ashes from that pot, but I decided there was something kinda wrong with that. ---
**Author:** ![not\_what\_you\_d\_expect](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/not_what_you_d_expect/32/3246_2.png) [@not\_what\_you\_d\_expect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/not_what_you_d_expect)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2015, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-you-get-into-coffee/725256/28 "2015-07-15T23:02:04Z")
I drank coffee fairly regularly growing up. It was Cuban coffee, which has a ton of milk. Our breakfast was a cup of coffee and a nice chunk of hot buttered Cuban bread. We’d dunk the bread in the coffee. So good. Then I moved from Florida and couldn’t get Cuban Coffee anymore so I started drinking regular coffee with tons of sugar, but switched to black coffee for caloric reasons when I was in my twenties. Been drinking it that way ever since. I would not want to be without my coffee. ---
**Author:** ![Rigamarole](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/77aa72/32.png) [@Rigamarole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rigamarole)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2015, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-you-get-into-coffee/725256/29 "2015-07-15T23:10:12Z")
> [@yellowjacketcoder](#): > > **How did you get into coffee?** Well, the hard part was building a mug large enough to contain me. Then I just filled it up and climbed in. ---
**Author:** ![NDP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ndp/32/55_2.png) [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2015, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-you-get-into-coffee/725256/30 "2015-07-15T23:18:48Z")
I was indifferent toward coffee during the time I was a kid, a teenage, a college student, and law student. I did like coffee ice cream but that was the extent of it. By my mid 20’s espresso stands started popping up at every corner so I began indulging in an occasional latté. More significantly, there was also a nearby restaurant that used to serve Austrian Coffee (coffee with cinnamon and whipped cream) that I used to guzzle in great quantities with my meals. Then, I was hired for a job that required me to get up at 4 a.m. once a week and 5:45 every other day. Coffee pretty much became a daily requirement for me after that. Most of the time, I prefer a 20 or 24 ounce serving (either all regular or half regular/half decaf) with a decaf espresso shot sweetened with probably too many packets of Splenda. ---
**Author:** ![2ManyTacos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/2/3da27b/32.png) [@2ManyTacos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/2ManyTacos)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2015, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-you-get-into-coffee/725256/31 "2015-07-15T23:33:10Z")
Tenth or eleventh grade; my mom has been a religious coffee drinker for most of her life, so she would always have a big-ass coffee mug sitting next to her in the morning as she took me to school. For whatever reason, I started drinking from that mug on the ride to class, and that gradually evolved into the addiction I have today. I get at least two cups a day, though I can just as easily go through 6-15 cups depending on the day & how I’m feeling. For me, it’s more of an addiction to the _caffeine_ than it is to the coffee itself, a fact which I blame on the three years of overnight shifts (and, consequently, no f’ing sleep) that I worked between the ages of 19 and 22. In lieu of coffee, sometimes I’m fine with just an energy shot (think 5 Hour Energy or any assorted knock-offs) in the morning, though most of the time I’ll combine an energy shot _with_ 2-3 cups of coffee. I can drink coffee in basically any of its myriad iterations. Hot coffee, iced coffee, coffee with cream & sugar, coffee with fancy creamer…it’s all good. A couple years ago, the first time I did P90X, I even came around to liking black coffee, something I never thought I could achieve. Currently, I drink my coffee with [this creamer.](http://www.walmart.com/ip/Dunkin-Donuts-Extra-Extra-Coffee-Creamer-32-fl-oz/36599496) It doesn’t get ANY better than that. Seriously. ---
**Author:** ![even\_sven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dfb087/32.png) [@even\_sven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/even_sven)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2015, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-you-get-into-coffee/725256/32 "2015-07-16T00:06:18Z")
Starbucks is uniquely terrible. I have no idea why- it’s kind of bizarre that a shop that focuses on coffee is so bad at it- but their drip coffee is undrinkable. Try coffee in different ways. I like coffee either black, or with vanilla soy milk. For some reason, the normal “splash of cream and single sugar” thing tastes positively hideous to me- it makes everything oddly metallic and grating. I find black coffee much more mellow. I don’t know why I like soy milk when I can’t stand the real-milk equivalent, but it works. ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2015, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-you-get-into-coffee/725256/33 "2015-07-16T00:12:55Z")
My Mother and Grandmother thought it was adorable to let me have a morning cup of coffee with them. Hills Brothers, percolated, with cream and sugar. I’ve always loved the taste and aroma. I was drinking two cups a day by the time I was seven, and have literally never gone a day in my life since then without at least two cups, 3-4 cups daily since my early teens, 3-5c the past couple of years (I’m 64). Specifications haven’t changed from Day One: a little on the strong side, with a little cream and sugar (now Splenda). Although it’s better than nothing in a pinch, I’ve never cared for fancy/schmancy exoctic blends of coffee, whether strong or weak. Give me a cup of plain old Joe, old-fashioned regular American supermarket coffee from a can. When I have to buy a cup out in the world, my go-to’s are 7-11 and McDonald’s. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2015, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-you-get-into-coffee/725256/34 "2015-07-16T00:24:58Z")
> [@TreacherousCretin](#): > > I was drinking two cups a day by the time I was seven… Just as a data point, how tall are you? ---
**Author:** ![Saturn\_Dreams](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dc4da7/32.png) [@Saturn\_Dreams](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saturn_Dreams)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2015, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-you-get-into-coffee/725256/35 "2015-07-16T00:49:26Z")
I’ve always liked coffee-flavoured drinks and desserts ever since I was a kid but never appreciated the drink on its own until I went to France and Italy and had a café and espresso. The flavour was so rich and smooth and totally different from what I tasted in North America or Japan for that matter. What I learned was proper preparation of the beans plus the right pour method can significantly change the way coffee tastes. I’m still a tea guy and don’t drink much coffee, but when I do, I make it myself because it tastes the best. If I drink it outside, I like Blue Bottle Coffee since they make each cup to order and they use the Japanese pour method. ---
**Author:** ![watchwolf49](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e9c0ed/32.png) [@watchwolf49](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/watchwolf49)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2015, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-you-get-into-coffee/725256/36 "2015-07-16T00:56:14Z")
Long distance driving is how I started, black, I was already eating white sugar by the handful so I figured I’d get diabetes if I used sugar in my coffee. Now I drink it with milk (or cream) just to take the sting out of the brew. I remember making it a point to fill the thermos in Pennsylvania, just couldn’t stomach the strong coffee they serve in the Hudson Valley. I got used to the strength New Englanders drink it and brought that back with me to the West Coast … … and no one comes to my house for coffee, Westerners need to be able to read a newspaper through the stuff or it’s way too strong for them … [giggle] ---
**Author:** ![SeaDragonTattoo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@SeaDragonTattoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SeaDragonTattoo)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2015, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-you-get-into-coffee/725256/37 "2015-07-16T01:00:35Z")
My addiction started in college. I’ve quit it twice since then, once cold turkey with a raging migraine for a week and once weaning over the course of a month. Neither quitting stuck, I plain like coffee. I tried decaf for a while last time I failed at quitting, but the only decaf that tastes good is the Swiss process and it’s more expensive than regular. So I’ve been drinking regular with a big splash of half and half for about 18 years now. Part of that is the genuine addiction issue - trying to skip a day results in my head feeling like it’s in a vice. Oh, here’s a little anecdote for ya, I forgot about my little hospital stay in 2013 that resulted in me fasted and having a withdrawal headache. Check it - not even morphine helped the headache. I begged for just a damn No-Doz from across the street, and they finally caved by allowing an Excedrin. Whatever. The headache went away, though not so sure the aspirin part of it was such a great idea on surgery day. But hey, I’m not a doctor. Anyway, I used to be whole-hog with an espresso machine plus a fancy drip maker and bur grinder, and have since ditched all that for a French press and manual hand grinder. My daily cuppa is just coffee with half and half, but my day-off treat has maple syrup and bourbon added to it. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2015, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-you-get-into-coffee/725256/38 "2015-07-16T01:28:11Z")
> [@Fear\_Itself](#): > > Just as a data point, how tall are you? Mrs. Plant (_ **v.2.0** _) refused her daughter coffee at my house, “Because it will stunt your growth!”. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2015, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-you-get-into-coffee/725256/39 "2015-07-16T01:54:20Z")
I wasn’t much of a coffee drinker until my 40s. I always did a rolleyes at the guy in the office waling around with a coffee mug every morning. Then I started hanging out, before work, at one of the local coffee shops and found out that I really liked it. But with lots of cream (or half&half). But it has to be the good stuff. Peet’s or a local good coffee roasting place. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2015, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-you-get-into-coffee/725256/40 "2015-07-16T02:10:46Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > I wasn’t much of a coffee drinker until my 40s. Good lord. We need a pool to determine if one began drinking coffee to perform at work, or not. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-you-get-into-coffee/725256.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-you-get-into-coffee/725256.md?page=3)