Yeah, this is one that I’ve realized means different things to different people. For me, “black” means no adulterants of any kind. Just straight-up coffee. But then, at some point, I realized some people just use it to mean “no dairy/dairy substitute.” Probably sometime around college when I most interacted with people from outside the Chicago area. I’ve certainly never heard “black coffee” to refer to anything but plain coffee here. And even Googling “black coffee,” it does seem the vast majority of folks refer to it as unadulterated coffee.
I’m lucky enough to have several co-workers that are connoisseurs that like varied pricey stuff, properly made. For expensive work coffee lovingly made( often with carefully weighed-out pour-overs, sometimes a french press ), I drink it straight.
If I go out to breakfast, I prefer a touch of dairy( not a lot )and often a little sweetener of some sort.
I neither keep nor drink coffee at home. Tea occasionally, but not coffee. It’s strictly an out-to-breakfast or ceremonial shift change work coffee thing. So it doesn’t run in my blood and I never make it myself( I do contribute funds at work ). I just like it when I get it :).
If you order black coffee, you get coffee with nothing in it. If you order black coffee with sugar, you get sugar. How else would you order it (assuming you can’t just doctor it yourself)?
I used to grind fancy beans and brew in a french press. A splash of half & half and a few grains of saccharine (I’ve used saccharine for so many years, real sugar tastes artificial to me). I also brewed a lot of espresso and cafe Cubano (got hooked on that when I lived in Miami) with good beans back in the day.
But, my taste buds have not aged well and mostly retired from duty. So now I buy cheap canned coffee and espresso (whatever is on sale) and just imagine it tastes like the good stuff.
I now use a Keurig machine with refillable pods. I pre-fill 5 pods with 50/50 coffee/espresso and that gets me through the day (unless it’s a particularly tiresome day, then a couple tweaks of crystal does the trick. Just kidding).
I use that tired taste-bud self-psyche-out with other types of food, too. You know, monk-fish really does taste like lobster if you have a good imagination and don’t inhale through your nose while you eat. Of course, monk-fish is getting near as expensive as lobster, so I might have to switch to catfish braised in butter for that lobster hankering.
When I do want to call my taste buds to action, I need to eat very pungent foods, like anchovies topped with melted Limburger cheese. I’m hoping to score some Surströmming and Vieux Boulogne someday. I have no idea why my kids call me, stinky ol’ dad!?
Strong and dark and just a little bitter…just like my women.
This is me. But I like my coffee super strong so that i can taste it through the cream and sugar. This I get from growing up drinking Puerto Rican style coffee-- hot milk with super thick and rich espresso (usually room temp) poured in, sugar to taste and I like the taste of sugar.
On the weekends, I like to take the last coffee in the press, usually about a half a cup and add a lot of sugar and half & half. It’s actually slightly cold from all the cream. That’s usually my last cup of the day on a weekend and then it’s off to the park with the mutt.
I use the grocery store equivalent of Tim Horton’s (usually purchased at Shoppers Drug Mart at 50% off) brewed in a French press. Add cream and it’s good to go. If I’m out on the town I prefer McDonald’s coffee but usually grab a Tim Horton’s as it is right next to work. A medium 2 cream hits the spot.
I keep a pitcher of cold-brewed Café Bustelo in the fridge at all times, and either take it over ice with a little sugar-free Torani English Toffee syrup and half & half, or microwave a bit and add just the half & half.
“I’ll have a coffee with sugar.” I mean, would you say “I’ll have a black coffee with cream”?
Funny story: I ordered my mother a box of 100 coffee k-cups for Christmas. The day after I received them in the mail, I get an email from my mother informing me and my siblings she is no longer using pre-filled coffee k-cups because my father is now buying whole beans and grinding them himself.
My wife can’t have caffeine and while I do drink coffee, it’s never been a normal part of my routine, it’s just something I’ll have every now and then.
However, seeing that my work hours have recently changed to very early in the morning (I have to be out the door by 05:15), rather than just give the k-cups away I decided to use them. I ordered a Keurig mini and a couple of travel mugs (use one, wash one, switch) and when I get through the k-cups I’ll also go buy whole beans and grind them myself.
Anyways, to answer the question, like Mr. Wolf: lotsa cream, lotsa sugar. Maybe a dash of cinnamon if I remember to add it but I never do. When I grind my own it will probably be Mayorga (they’re a local company).
I like high quality, rich coffees. I take coffee with cream and no sugar. I prefer it black, but the cream cuts the acidity and, since I drink the equivalent of at least two and sometimes three Dunkin’ extra large coffees a day, acidity is definitely an issue.
I like mine “flat white” style. Even from before I knew such a style had a name.
I first got a taste for it on a Spanish holiday when I was 11 (so nearly 40 years ago) It was a small-ish cup with a big shot or two of espresso coffee in it and about a third of a cup of hot, foamy milk on top. Not frothy like a cappuccino though. The cup has to be fairly small so that the strength is correct and so that when it is served (at an immediately comfortable drinking temperature) I can finish it before it gets cold and I don’t get sick of it and waste it.
I most often recreate this style at home with an espresso machine and I’m fairly open to varieties of beans and grounds. As long as it is darkly roasted and can produce enough of the strong stuff to make it worthwhile then I’m happy to play the field.
You’re actually preaching to the choir, except that I emigrated to New York City in 1984 and the decades since then have forced me to modify my language use somewhat.
So unless I’m willing to risk sugar in my coffee or won’t get annoyed when I get asked, I have to say “Black NO SUGAR”.
But I’m right there with you. I shouldn’t have to.
I make it two ways, depending on my mood. Most often I make a lavender coffee by adding some lavender buds to my grounds, then add a pump of lavender syrup. The other way is to add a proprietary spice blend to the grounds and add a pump of rose syrup. I add half & half to both types.
Regular coffee with cream and sugar, from Dunkin’. I get it every morning (including weekends).
I purchased one of their 32-ounce thermoses, and I have it refilled every morning. Paid for itself in a month.
Refilled (32 ounces) is $2.26 compared to an extra-large (20 ounce) that costs $3.42. And it stays piping hot for hours and hours.
Oh, yeah, “regular” coffee. That one was a surprise to me, too. (For those who don’t know “regular” coffee in NYC and its environs means plenty of cream and sugar.) Supposedly, looking this up, apparently even just “coffee” would mean that there. In that case, I understand the “black coffee with sugar” people, which to me just sounds odd, as “coffee” on its own doesn’t mean with cream nor sugar.
I have never been a coffee connoisseur although I was introduced to good stuff back in the early 1970s by my San Francisco Russian landlady who hand-ground the beans shipped to her from… somewhere. Beans were hard to find in US markets then. After her breakfast coffee, I got whatever flowed from corporate mailroom pots on my bicycle courier routes. Like going from the sublime to the ridiculous - except at the Hills Bros mailroom, where it was fresh.
I have drunk the best coffee in Antigua Guatemala and thus in the world, cheap at José’s Cafe next to Posada la Merced. Thin, energetic José selected the best from a local finca, roasted them in his custom-built device, hand-ground them, and served as much as you wanted for a pittance, alongside a very reasonable and tasty early meal. Get stuffed and caffeinated for a couple of US bucks.
I have never seen a serving of coffee I could not drink - green growths and filthy cups excepted.
All my life I’ve heard “black coffee with sugar” which is what my father drank. I drink “black coffee, no sugar”. You have to specify “black coffee” because as noted below, sometimes if you order “coffee” it comes with some sort of cream, milk or fake creamer already mixed in.
I get the most interestingly-flavored ground coffee I can find from the grocery store, and pair it with whatever interestingly-flavored creamer I currently have on-hand. It can make for some…interesting pairings. I used to use sugar-free creamer, but found myself drinking/enjoying coffee at home less and less, and I missed it.
When I get coffee out and about, I prefer Caribou over Starbucks, and tend to get mochas or lattes. Usually with skim milk and no whip, but sometimes I forget to specify, and it isn’t a big deal. Those are special treats either way, though.