Put me down as one of the cheap ones. I recently broke a carafe and realized that my $20 Mr Coffee drip machine has a $15 replacement pot. :dubious:
I have tried lots of other things. I own one of the cold-brew systems that drips overnight. I have two different French presses. I have a coffee grinder. Coarse grind, fine grind, whole beans… subscription to Gevalia…
I keep coming back to Folgers (mild or medium roast) and Mr Coffee.
I was an only child with older parents and that’s just what we had for breakfast. I could have had milk but coffee with milk and sugar just seems to go with a traditional breakfast. I know I had coffee in elementary school, maybe since age 10?
There is no need to over-complicate the making of coffee. A great cup of coffee can be made very simply and cheaply at home using a cone/filter, French Press, and a grinder, if you are so inclined, or thru a basic coffee machine, as stated above.
Like anything else that can employ “gear”, once people start to tinker, the drama begins. You don’t have to pay any attention to all these nitty-gritty details. Just start slow and find something you like.
For the OP: I concur with the suggestion to start drinking weaker coffee at first, and then adjust as your taste desires. If you are buying made coffee from a coffee shop, you can weaken it with cream. Just give it a sip and then decide how much weakening it needs (it’s OK to spill-out a little to make “room”). Or, you can start-off with mochas, like my wife, and then just coach the barista as to how much coffee to add (making it stronger over time).
I just fill up whichever damn pot still works, set it for 5:15, and mutter at 5:30, “Jesus, what a life.”
:rolleyes:
Honestly, you don’t even need that. I grew up drinking an ultra fine grind with water poured over it. Let it steep for a few minutes and the grounds settle out. This is how my Polish parents drank coffee, and it’s based on the Turkish and Greek styles of drinking coffee with the cezve/ibrik, except you don’t need to make the coffee in that vessel. The key is you need an ultra-fine grind, otherwise the grounds don’t settle properly. It’s like “instant” coffee, except good. 
An example of going way overboard, I visited people in San Diego who insisted on roasting their own beans. They had several sources of supply, and a bean roaster which applied intense heat for way longer than any reasonable person wants to wait for a cup of coffee.
And the result did not taste any better than what I get from grinding beans. But I’d never tell them that.
The intense heat made me nervous. And indeed, their house burned down a few months later. But not from making coffee.
So they claim.
I could have told the OP to try Civet Cat Coffee, but I refrained…
Mr. Coffee for me too. Melitta Classic Blend (22 oz. can).
Navy. It’s (well it was) practically required that you drink really, really strong coffee in the Navy. Before that I didn’t really drink the stuff much, or really at all.
Do they put salt in engine room coffee, as in The Sand Pebbles?
I put salt in the coffee pot at work, and everyone liked it until they found out, and then I was forbidden to salt it. 
I will preface this by saying that I’m a tea drinker far from being a coffee snob, but I totally understand coffee aficionados wanting to roast their own beans. The difference between freshly roasted and vacuum pre-packaged is night and day. I certainly don’t own a roaster nor would I want one, but I know a friend who does. She’s studying to be a coffee sommelier just because she likes coffee so much and it’s her hobby.
I’m lucky that our local coffee store has a roaster on-site and roasts green coffee to order. You have to wait about 10-15 minutes every time you order, but it’s worth every minute. It’s gotten so that we only buy beans from here, or if it lists the roast date.
The birth of my first daughter.
Actually, I guess you could distinguish three phases in my coffee habits:
Ages 0-27: I must have drunk two cups during all those years, each time because I was offered coffee in a way that made it clear that refusing would be impolite. I really disliked the taste but loved the smell of ground coffee.
Ages 28-31: I started drinking coffee on Saturday and Sunday mornings to make my then-girlfriend, now-wife happy. Lots of sugar was required.
Ages 32-40: My first daughter was born, followed by my youngest one almost three years later and I quickly discovered the wonders that caffeine can make in the morning. Two daily cups is standard for me now, one when I get to work, the second one around 1 pm. Recent development, I have taken to adding milk to it.
My mother was a coffee addict, and as a kid I begged for a taste. She finally gave me a small cup of coffee with milk and sugar. I didn’t like it. Later I learned that I just didn’t like any milk or sugar in coffee. Black coffee tastes great to me.
I started my coffee habit as an older teen, when I was working and going to school. I needed to stay awake through the job and the night classes. Today, many years later, I still drink coffee every morning so I can feel alert. I am a night person and feel very sluggish in the morning.
Starbucks coffee tastes terrible. McDonald’s coffee is less terrible but still not very tasty. If you have these places in your area, the coffee is pretty good: Waffle House and Quik Trip (gas stations).
At home, I use Maxwell House original roast. If I’m in a hurry I use an MH coffee bag (similar to a teabag). Otherwise I make a couple of cups in a small percolator.
It’s because for most people Starbucks is not really a place to get coffee, but rather something that’s more like ice cream. That’s really the foundation to their success. People can say, “Let’s get coffee,” and it sounds like such a minimal, businesslike indulgence, but all the while what they really mean today is, “Let’s get ice cream.”
Well, yeah, their regular coffee is indeed horrible, but so is Dunkin’ Donuts’. All you have to do is ask for dark roast, and they usually have something decent.
I guess. But I make reasonably good coffee day in and day out, while half asleep, with an ancient Mr Coffee and whatever was on sale at the super market. Making coffee that is not horrible requires such a minimal effort that the idea of the world’s largest coffee outlet somehow not being able to achieve that… It’s bizarre.
(And I prefer a lighter roast)
I started drinking coffee when I was 20 in college. I never cared for it growing up. Liked the smell of my parents’ brew but didn’t like the taste. Once I drank enough to feel the pick-me-up I got hooked. One of my roommates showed me how to make “Cuban” coffee using one of those little espresso pots, warm milk, and sugar (and maybe cinnamon? can’t remember exactly). That was always a tasty treat. Another roommate turned me on to lattes at the local coffee joint (Trident in Boulder). While lattes are enjoyable they never get me fired up like a regular coffee.
I, for one, enjoy Starbucks coffee, either Pike Place or whatever dark roast they have going. Moreso than Dunkin’s. For home brewing I choose from a selection of dark roasts at the grocery store, have them grind it (drip), and use a Mr. Coffee type drip coffeemaker. I store the coffee in an old chock full o nuts can so it’s easy to scoop out. I just take my coffee with milk, no sugar. I’d like to try a French Press, if I can ever remember to get one.
Tea drinker here (British & Irish teabags that don’t have a string) not much of a coffee drinker. Watching American films & TV shows you get the impression that any American office worker buys ten paper cup coffees a day. Why spend so much money at the likes of Starbucks when you can make it for free in your office/ home and drink it as god intended in a ceramic cup? I know instant out of a jar is crap but I’ve seen a fair amount of coffee making machines on shows and I’m sure they’re not expensive for workers to buy. Especially when this thread has a litany of people saying the chain coffee shops are massively overrated. Style over substance?
Speaking as a person who likes coffee, a lot of commonly available coffee is absolutely foul. I’m convinced the main ingredient in Dunkin Donuts coffee is urine.
Turns out I’m extremely sensitive to “acid” flavors in coffee and a lot of cheap coffee is very acid. In addition, a lot of “good” fancy-type coffee that is grown in Africa is very acid. Turns out most coffee that’s low acid is from South American or Central America.
I used to buy Trader Joe’s Low-acid French Roast or buy Peruvian or Costa Rican beans from the fancy coffee store but now I buy Cafe Bustelo which is a cheap as shit Cuban-style coffee that’s awesome. There are a few very similar competitors (cafe Pilon, cafe Caribe) and one of them is always on sale for $2.50/10 oz brick.
My coworkers are always going on about how Maxwell House is good enough for them but when I put a pot of Bustelo on its all “oooooh can I have a cup.” Ironically Bustelo is cheaper than that Maxwell House swill.
Wellll… a lot of movies are set in NYC and there are innumerable coffee carts on the streets of NYC where you can grab a cup of coffee for $1. Those blue paper cups you see in movies are NOT from Sbux, they’re from coffee carts. If you only want one cup and you want it now, its soooooo easy to grab a cup and not at all expensive. Also you can’t “make it for free” at work, not all workplaces provide free coffee (in my experience, those that do are really the exception nowadays) or even a machine for employee use. Now admittedly bringing in your own coffee is still far cheaper than a $1/day coffee cart habit but it does cost in $$, time, and effort especially if you have to bring in your own machine (which your coworkers will inevitably break).
Very few people I know drink a huge amount of coffee, usually just one or two cups in the morning. Brewing a pot where much goes to waste is annoying to some people.
Going to coffee is a social event. In my office, “let’s go to coffee” is how you catch up with coworkers in other parts of the organization, have informal meetings, or discuss things you don’t want overheard. Its a sanctioned excuse to talk about work in a less formal setting.