I don't know how anyone does it.
When it hits my tongue it just tastes like bitterness. How do you do it? What should I be envisioning when I drink it? Does it taste nutty to you? Like what is that good thing you taste when it hits your tongue that I need to be imagining?
The coffee I make doesn't taste bitter to me, it just tastes like coffee (no nut flavor), and it tastes good to me. I use run-of-the-mill Folgers Classic Roast brewed in a vintage Jet-O-Matic, and it's neither bitter nor acidic/sour tasting.
Just to make sure the bitterness you're talking about isn't a result of the particular coffee you're drinking or brewing method you use, you could try Folgers Singles, which doesn't have any off-flavors that I can detect, but it's not as flavorful as regular Folgers coffee grounds with a good brewing method in my opinion. They are like tea bags, but have coffee in the bags. Make sure you only use a maximum of 6 oz. of boiling water for one bag, which is the standard "cup" size for coffee. If you use more water than that it will be weak/watery. If you find that to be bitter then you have a different idea of what constitutes bitter than I do.
I drink Dunkin Donuts coffee made with a Mr. Coffee coffee machine. It has been so long since I actually drank black coffee I don't remember exactly how it tasted to me. Maybe tomorrow when I make some I'll allow myself a sip to see what the proper description would be.
shareAnd now for a long-winded anecdote:
One night in 1987 or 1988 when my friends Corey (R.I.P. 1974-2015) and Tom were spending the weekend at my house (we were 12 or 13) the subject of coffee came up. I'd never tried it and Corey and Tom both made out like they were coffee-drinking veterans. They told stories of getting up at 4 AM to go hunting, and drinking the strongest, blackest coffee you could imagine, and liking it. So I wanted to try some. I said, "I think we have some coffee in the cupboard; do you guys know how to make it?" Well of course they did. I dug around in the cupboard to find a dusty old jar of instant coffee that had been there since about 1982, and Tom tried to find something to boil water in. There wasn't much clean, so he used a 9" skillet, missing its handle. There were no clean coffee mugs, so we used Mason jars. There were no clean spoons either (and of course, we weren't going to do the dishes; that was completely out of the question), so after Tom spilled half of the boiling water trying to pour it from a handleless 9" skillet into Mason jars, he had to use his fingers to pinch instant coffee out of the jar into our cups.
I wasn't the one who had claimed to love strong, black coffee, so he went light on mine, and I also flooded it with milk and sugar. Corey and Tom on the other hand, had already consigned themselves to drinking it strong and black, due to their earlier boasting. Tom kept scooping and scooping the instant coffee with his fingers into Corey's Mason jar. It was like tar. You probably could have stood a spoon up in it, not that we had a spoon to try. And they drank it, giving nods of approval, saying, "This is good coffee."
The next morning when we woke up, Corey was gone, and Mom got a phone call from Corey's mother, wanting to know what "those boys were doing last night." She said, "Corey's awful sick, I think he's been drinking!" He was sick for three days, and he told me years later that he never touched coffee again, and if anyone asked him why, he would tell the story of "Tom's Coffee."
It sounds like that coffee was rough on your friend but it gave you a story to always remember. π That reminds me of the story of a friend of mine spending the night at my house, baking a lemon meringue pie together and then spilling it all over the floor and ruining it. Different disaster but another lifelong memory. We do crazy things when we're kids.
shareEasy, get to the 4th sip. Just like an IPA.
My family drinks a lot of coffee. We start around 11 years old. I don't care if it's affiliated or not. I love are good cup of black coffee. Especially on a cold day.
I'd drink tea but it gives me headaches. Coffee doesn't.
Curious, I stopped drinking coffee because it gave me headaches, tea is mostly mildly flavored water
shareSo maybe I just need to take more sips until my tongue gets used to it.π€ Like I told another poster earlier in this thread I might try a few sips of black coffee tomorrow just to see if my tastes have changed. I honestly haven't tried it in quite some time. I'm not holding out much hope though. As another poster put it, I don't think I like coffee so much as coffee with cream and sugar.
shareYou also want a decent coffee.
I buy Caribou Daybreak or Starbucks Verona. It's certainly better than folders or maxwell house.
It's an acquired taste. No one likes beer at first, or wine or whisky
shareI don't like beer or wine or whiskey either. I've never acquired those tastes. Any alcohol I drink is always a mixed drink. I guess whether it's coffee or alcohol I need the tastes highly masked.
shareI agree on the beer or whiskey. Most beer (at least the cheap, crappy kind) tastes like horse piss (at least that's how my brother describes it, and the few times I've tasted it, I would agree with him).
Whiskey should only be drunk in at least one cup when you're feeling extremely upset about something, which hopefully only happens once or twice a year, or not at all in an ideal situation. It's one of those things that you briefly have to help calm you down, and you use the kind that actually goes down smooth, but still has a bit of a kick. Never hurts to have a bottle of good quality bourbon hidden away in the back of a high cabinet in the kitchen for that.
Wine is trickier. I was never a fan of red wine (it doesn't taste that great to me). White wine isn't so bad. Best kind I ever had was Moscato, particularly from the Barefoot company. It doesn't have as powerful an effect compared to some types of booze, and gives a little bit of a buzz. I don't drink it very often, though. Maybe once or twice a year through holidays.
Strongest booze I've drunken so far is Mead, because my brother likes it. He has fun tapping into our Viking heritage ;)
Again, like all the other booze in our house, we don't drink it very often despite it sitting in our cupboards for months (or even years) at a time. Even our bottle of strawberry margarita and the blender haven't seen much action in the past 8-10 months! (Gotta love drinks that can stay good for years at a time without rotting).
Sounds like you're a fan of wine coolers! :) Those actually taste great :D Years ago, when they served alcohol on airplanes, mom would sometimes ask for a little bottle of wine from the flight attendant as well as some kind of fruit drink so she could mix up her own wine coolers for the flight, hehehe. After tasting them myself, I can see why she'd like them. But again, she doesn't drink booze very often.
I don't drink very often either. When I do it's usually something like an Amaretto sour, pina colada or strawberry daiquiri. I do also like wine coolers.
shareEver tried Kahlua? It's chocolatey goodness either by itself or in a White Russian. They even make candy with it! https://i.pinimg.com/originals/f8/e7/de/f8e7dead4136a408431af29d71fe61e0.jpg (The kiddies can have the Lindor chocolate spheres, they're safe). But again, I wouldn't drink it too often because it's a moderately strong liquor.
shareBlack coffee is just fine, but never without sugar/sweetener.
shareThe only person I knew who liked black coffee was grandma on my mom's side (God rest her soul). Mom and dad both like coffee with creamer and sugar in it. It seems they both like dark roast coffee. I'm thinking that people who love coffee in the morning want a sensation like, it's morning, it's pleasant, they're waking up, and it has a pleasant smell that makes them think of breakfast.
Some people like having a little "bite" in their drinks. It's kinda like how people who like dark chocolate feel versus people who like milk chocolate.
Uh, don't ask Austin Powers about "nutty" drinks *cringes*
My brother and I are weird because we don't drink coffee to wake up in the morning. We drink powdered energy juice (only flavors they have are strawberry and grape, but we like those). I like iced coffee or mochas, but I don't use them to wake up in the morning, I just drink them like liquid snack once in a blue moon.
I like iced coffee but unfortunately if you don't drink them quickly the ice will start to melt into them and then you've got watery coffee. I did have an iced coffee the other day from McDonald's, some sort of macchiato something or other that was really good.
shareI know what you mean. Usually I don't nurse a drink like that anyway, especially when enjoying it. The whipped cream on top is also a good motivator to drink it at a decent pace, because that eventually goes away too.
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