Dr. Cube, I think you’re actually part of a small minority.
Lots of people genuinely like coffee, even if it’s not premium. I’m not super picky about the beans, I actually really like automatic drip coffeemakers, and I’ll even warm up a cup that’s gone cold in the microwave AND LIKE IT. It’s not a hair shirt for me, even if it would be for you. I’ve toured coffee plantations in Hawaii and Costa Rica and I can appreciate really high-end stuff, but having experienced that doesn’t diminish my enjoyment of the regular stuff. The one hard line I draw is that it must NOT sit on the burner for an hour. I generally avoid Starbucks for this reason; I’m convinced they brew one pot of regular coffee at 5 a.m. and it lasts all day because everyone orders espresso-based drinks. If Starbucks is my only option, I’ll order an Americano; it saves me a lot of chewing.
I’d guess at least a plurality, if not a majority, of Americans only like coffee if it’s got some combination of cream, sugar, or various substitutes for those things. The quality of the coffee doesn’t matter; they want their kick in the pants light and sweet.
Then there are people who just don’t like it, period. I know it’s tempting to think they’re all just like you once were, unaware of what they’re missing. And in fairness, that is a thing that happens sometimes, and I would in general encourage people who dislike something to try the best version of it to see if that makes a difference. But sometimes it won’t. My husband never liked oysters; I got some incredible ones at the farmers market to be sure, and he gamely tried them but still didn’t care for them. On the other hand, I have a long list of converts to the Church of Guacamole–people who had just never had it done right until I blew their minds. I have to remind myself, though, that it won’t be that way for everyone.
If nothing else, though, trying the really good stuff once gives you a solid rejoinder for the next person who tries to tell you that you’d change your mind if only…
I’ve had “Armenian” coffee made for me by a friend who was an ethnically Armenian Iranian. It’s thick and extra coffee-y. Perfect with a bite or two of something sweet like baklava.
I’ve been drinking coffee since high school and started on the awful Folgers/Yuban stuff my parents drank, but I moved on the better coffees and always start my day with at least 2 or 3 cups – black. I can’t stand the taste of either coffee or tea with sugar in it. That’s what’s nasty to me. I used to drink a full pot a day, but the acid got to be a bit too much. And I used to have a cup within an hour of going to bed without it disrupting my sleep. I’m not that big of a caffeine addict now.
I don’t like coffee, wine or beer. All forms of all of them taste terrible to me. I don’t quite like spirits either but I can tolerate with a mixer. I figure it has something to do with how my tastes buds work.
I also don’t like hot drinks so I don’t drink hot cocoa, tea or soup either.
Last week I was sick and just dying to get something to help soothe my stomach and read that certain teas would do the trick. But of course I don’t keep tea here and didn’t want to figure out how to make it if I bought it. So I went to Starbucks for the first time ever and got their tea that has tummy-soothing properties.
I was SO MAD at the temperature of this damn tea. A 5-minute ride home and 10 minutes on my desk without a lid and the shit still burned my mouth. I have no idea how people drink hot stuff, right from the drive-thru!
Unfortunately, the Turks themselves don’t drink it any more. All they have now is tea. When I was in Istanbul 30 years ago, I went to a café determined to have a Turkish coffee in Turkey. I had to wait a half hour for it. When it arrived, the taste was disastrous because they’d used extremely stale grounds. I must have been the first person to order it all year. Turkish coffee is still served in former Ottoman provinces of the Levant, Greece, and Egypt, I’ve heard, though I haven’t been there.
I make my own in a brass *cezve *that was made in Syria. It’s much too strong to drink without heaping spoonfuls of sugar, which is added before you start to cook it. Then you have to avoid the sludge at the bottom, because it isn’t filtered, only decanted. It uses finely powdered grounds.
ETA— I never add sugar to any other sort of coffee. But Turkish coffee demands it.
I once accidentally picked up some dark chocolate ice cream but didn’t notice the word “mocha” on it. I tried it just to check and discovered it was inedible.
I was probably nine or 10 when I had my first cup of coffee. There was a shit ton of cream and sugar in it so it tasted pretty good to me. At some point I stopped adding cream and then I stopped adding sugar. Now a Double Double seems as bad as canned soda to me. I do like good black coffee or a well made cafe con leche.
Nobody likes stale/foul/burnt/spoiled/non-fresh coffee. I know that nasty taste people are talking about. As for good coffee, my half-brewed theory is, if you would not enjoy the taste of a hot, strong, bitter shot of coffee, you probably don’t like coffee, no matter what additives you drown it in.
However, I do know an individual who originally hated coffee, for some reason got in the habit of ordering American coffee (making love in a canoe) as a hot beverage, and one thing led to another and is now a (real, preferably ristretto) coffee addict, so evidently tastes can change.
I don’t know where you can order Turkish coffee, except of course (some) Middle Eastern cafés happen to offer it, but it’s really just normal coffee, only finely ground. I make it myself over a gas flame using the method explained by Johanna, namely adding the sugar first. Arabic coffee on the other hand is typically unsweetened, though I have seen people add cardamom and other spices, so not everybody likes it black.
I grew up with parents who drink instant or brewed coffee. I never liked the taste but didn’t mind the smell.
When my wife and I first got together, we would have tea, usually flavored but nothing special, and she might have a coffee from time to time but it wasn’t her preferred drink.
She loved Tiramisu, the Olive Garden kind but the high end homemade ones as well and could use that to get the taste she liked.
Then she discovered Frappicianos. She would have one or two a week as a treat. Then daily. We got a Keurig machine and she liked that well enough, although made them cold with lots of sugar added, but in the end, it’s the caffeine and the cream she adds that she wants, not the coffee per se. But she loves the smell and taste of it.
At the moment, we get beans, nothing exotic, grind them and do cold brew so she can have that with some creamer.
Now, for my confession. I haven’t said this before. I basically made myself hate the smell of coffee. I don’t wretch or anything but I don’t like it. I don’t remember why I did it but I did. And I’m the one that makes her cold brew and will get her coffee. I probably did it to tease my wife and then it became a lifestyle.
I use diet carbonated drinks to get my caffeine and have probably too much on a daily basis. I have gotten to the point that I don’t prefer hot drinks, on the level of scald my lips, but even a “strong warm” level. I can handle it warm. And it’s not tea anymore, just hot chocolate in deep winter. Maybe.
Many, many years ago, I had an opportunity to accompany my uncle – who I much admired – on road trips, which were frequently at all hours, across vast, open landscapes.
Not long after, I had another opportunity to share driving on long truck routes, likely to be at night.
In both cases, realizing that food and beverage options would be restricted, and coffee was sure to be available almost everywhere from truck stops to thermoses, I decided to learn to like coffee, even though I never had it before (due to an overly religious childhood).
So I did. If it wasn’t for this philosophy, I’d probably hate it now.
Never cared for it, the habit it seems to form, or the staining and mess it makes. Tastes like dirt to me, and covering that up with sugar and cream seems pointless.
I don’t mind coffee flavoring as long as it’s mixed with chocolate. Frappucinos and coffee ice cream are tasty.
But actual coffee? Uck. Never got the taste for it, and I wish I did. I don’t like liquor very much either (including wine) so I feel like I’m kind of locked out of all the “grown-up” drinks.
I did actually like Coke Blak (Coke and coffee–came out a few years ago and sank without a trace). So I guess maybe I’m okay with coffee flavor as long as it’s mixed with something sweet and it isn’t too strong.
I don’t like coffee except at cafe du monde with a beignet. I don’t drink hot drinks unless I am sick with chest congestion and then i drink a honey/lemon/ginger drink my doctor recommended.
