Either/or.
If I’m drinking coffee at home I’ll usually put in milk. If you order coffee with cream at a restaurant, you’re likely to get small plastic containers of half-and-half, or some non-dairy version thereof. They look like this.
When I drink coffee I want to be able to dress it up the way I want to. So if I ordered coffee and it came with milk already added I would probably send it back. I am very particular about my coffee and depending on my mood will determine how I dress it. Anyway, I always understood regular to mean “black.” ~o)
If I order ‘coffee’, I expect it to be black with no sugar. At home at Tim Horton’s, I’ll order an extra large ‘double double’, which is two sugar and two shots of cream. If you ask for a ‘regular’ at some places, it’ll be coffee with cream in it. I always specify exactly what I want at a new place, until I am sure of their way of doing things.
And what about people who make sandwiches so packed with ingredients that they’re impossible to eat? It’s very generous and all, but I don’t want something that explodes and covers me in sloppy ingredients. Just yesterday I had to tell a girl to remove about 60% of the egg salad she was piling up in my sandwich. “Less than that. Thanks. Now less than that too.” She looked at me like I had three heads.
In Spain if you say “un café” (coffee) without any more info, the waiter will usually verify, by asking “¿café café?” (pure coffee). Sugar and sweetener are in little envelopes; the names of the kinds of coffee refer to how much milk or which liquor goes into them.
Our idea of coffee seems to be what other people call espresso, it is not decent coffee unless it is strong enough to wake the dead. It may be served on a bigger cup.
American style coffee is often referred to as “washing water” around these parts.