Coffee drinkers: have you always liked coffee, or was it an acquired taste?

[cosine]

I don't drink coffee, however, twice in the past week I've found myself drinking it just to wake myself up in the morning after a long night of homework. The first swallow or two aren't too bad, but after that I find myself forcing it down. It just tastes like nasty bitter hot water. Granted, the caffeine kick is nice sometimes, but other than that I don't see how anyone could actually like it. Which brings another question to mind: Do you like the taste of coffee, or do you just tolerate it and actually drink it for the caffeine?

[taurusowner]

I generally don't drink black coffee unless I have to.  I prefer mocha to be honest.  It's like caffeinated hot chocolate.

[Fjolnirsson]

I hated coffee until I was about 21. I started drinking it on graveyard shift to stay awake, and found it tasted like "nasty, bitter water". I doctored it with cream and sugar to choke it down. Eventually, I learned that grinding your own beans could result in better coffee. It became a pleasurable morning ritual. Then I visited this website:http://maypeacebewithyou.blogspot.com/, where I was introduced to this:http://www.sweetmarias.com/prod.freshroast.shtml. Now I have a drum roaster, capable of up to a pound at a time, and 15 pounds of green coffee beans sitting in my kitchen. I learned that beans don't have to be roasted dark to have good flavor, and I learned that coffee is actually considered a "sweet" beverage by connoisseurs. Bitterness means the coffee is stale.
Really, the Fresh Roast is worth the $80 bucks, but be warned, it is an addiction. Made worse by the fact that I pay one half to a third the price of roasted beans from a store by doing it myself, and it takes very little time or effort.

As for the taste? Canned coffee tastes like the rear end of a southbound mule. Fresh roasted coffee is divine.

[Josh Aston]

I still hate it.  I'll take a Monster over coffee any day out of the week.

[mgdavis]

I didn't like coffee till three or four years ago. I can't remember what got me started on it, but now 2 cups of Folgers French Roast is part of the morning ritual. I know it's not a super nice coffee, but it works for me.

There was also a time when I couldn't stand the taste of beer. 

[RocketMan]

Standing radio watch at 0-dark-30 in the desert at Stumps makes drinking coffee a mandatory activity.  Thats how I started.

[Perd Hapley]

I have always liked the smell, but only came to like the flavor later on.  I'm not sure why I started drinking it, or when.  It has a bitter taste, (or at least I've always found it so), but cosine, I would guess you like some other bitter things, too.  Horseradish, perhaps? 

I only like it when it's hot or iced.  Warm or room temp just does nothing for me.  I never use cream or sugar, but will occasionally stir in some cocoa mix.  It's actually better than some mochas I've had.  I also like bottled coffee drinks, like those Starbucks things.

[Nick1911]

I have always liked the smell.  Started drinking coffee with lots of sugar and creamer in high school.  By the end of college, I liked the flavor, black.  Even crappy office coffee is fine black now.

[Declaration Day]

I'll take a Monster over coffee any day out of the week.

Agreed.  I tend to drink coffee more in the winter though.  While I can discern the difference between cheap coffee and snob coffee, it's a functional product to me, so I am not picky.

But to answer the original question, I liked coffee the first time I tried it as a young kid.

[cosine]

I like the smell of coffee too, it's just as a beverage I don't like the flavor. Oddly enough, I like most coffee flavored pastries and candies, such as chocolates or coffee flavored jelly beans.

I've had mocha, and it's slightly better than plain coffee, but I still don't really like it.

I know there's a few bitter things I like, but I can't think of any right now... unless mustard is considered to be bitter.

Maybe coffee will be the next things I come to like, similar to how I used to hate mustard, but now enjoy. I still hate beer though. Once I turn 21 there's a few other alcoholic drinks I'd like to try, but I'm not sure if I'll ever like beer... although seeing how I changed my mind about mustard, that might change as well. 

I just remembered that there was one time I had some coffee that was tolerable for more then a few sips. My cousin had made some coffee using a French Press, and it seemed less bitter, and more "smooth."

[Perd Hapley]

Yeah, I would think mustard would definitely qualify in the bitter department.  Especially that nasty brown stuff.  It's all about the yellow, baby. 

[Standard hype-deflating about the French press.]  Meh.  Me like it brewed.

[K Frame]

I HATE black coffee.

But with half and half or table cream?

Sublime.

[Bigjake]

On the beer, all will change when you get ya some Shiner  

On the coffee, Crappy coffee tastes, well crappy.  Good coffee (not to be confused with starshmucks), is hard to beat.

A good place to start is Mcdonald's or Dunkin Doughnuts for a decent generic brew.

[Josh Aston]

On the beer try some Dos Equis.  For the alcohol try Cabo Wabo Repisado or Anejo.

[Headless Thompson Gunner]

Coffee is one of life's great frauds.  It smells fantastic and promises to taste divine, but once you take that first sip you realize that you've been cheated.  The taste never lives up to the smell.

[Fjolnirsson]

Coffee is one of life's great frauds.  It smells fantastic and promises to taste divine, but once you take that first sip you realize that you've been cheated.  The taste never lives up to the smell.

I used to feel this way. Roast your own, and you'll never go back.

[mtnbkr]

I love strong black coffee, but I started out drinking it with a lot of cream and sugar. 

As I get older, I find I prefer strong, bitter flavors.  Beer and Coffee are two examples.  I'd rather have black coffee than soda of any flavor.

Chris

[Bigjake]

Coffee is one of life's great frauds.  It smells fantastic and promises to taste divine, but once you take that first sip you realize that you've been cheated.  The taste never lives up to the smell.

Ye of little faith.

Until you've had fresh brewed coffee, with raw sugar and fresh goat milk on the island of Barbados, you haven't lived.  

That's some good coffee which matches and surpasses the aroma.

[BReilley]

I've liked coffee ever since my parents let me try some.  I usually add some cream and sugar, but generally less than I see other people adding.  I like my coffee and tea strong. :shrug:

Also, coffee makes me a nice guy in the morning

I'm very interested in Fjolnirsson's home-ground coffee; sounds good.  I'll give it a try and maybe get a group thing going at work, come winter - it's not coffee season in yet Arizona).

[seeker_two]

I like my coffee like I like my women......dark, hot, with a lot of sugar for me.....and a big hunk of banana creme cake on the side.....

I developed the taste while in college....and I'm not too picky about my type of java....except I hate Starbucks....tastes like ground charcoal....

A tip I've found for drip coffeemakers.....after you fill your filter, put another one on top of the ground coffee....it slows the water going through and acts like a press to push out more flavor....

[Uncle Bubba]

I've always liked coffee - my dad always drank Luzianne with chicory, brewed on the stove in a percolator - but got to be a coffeehound with experiences like RocketMan described. Gotta have something to keep your eyes open out in the field, and as nasty as C-rat coffee is, it did the job.

After many years of putting up with el cheapo drip machines, I broke down and spent the duckys for a Bunn home machine a few months ago. Best hot - I mean hot - coffee I've ever had from a home model.

Put a pinch of salt in before brewing to really smooth out the flavor. 1/8 tsp per 10 cups is the recommended dose, I just wing it and actually pinch rather than measure.

[thebaldguy]

Coffee is a tradition on both sides of my family. My younger sister drank coffee cut with milk and sugar since age 10 or twelve. I drank tea when I was younger, as I didn't really like the taste of coffee so much. I started drinking it in high school. I take it black with just a little sugar. I buy beans and grind just before use. It's much better than canned coffee of days gone by.

When you live in a cold northern climate you have a greater chance of coffee use to keep warm. I make decaf from beans on winter nights.

[Sindawe]

Coffee was an aquired taste for me.  I started out drinking it with milk and sugar to wake up in the morning for school.   Then I stopped buying milk in the early 90s and just used sugar in the coffee.  A few years later I dropped the sugar as well except for coffee at work (where its made with a single pass of scalding hot water over stale preground overoasted beans).  At home I grind my own beans and use a French press most of the time.  One pot fills my Methylene Chloride mug twice over, which is sufficient for a decent jolt.

It is a morning ritual anymore.  Get up, draw a glass of cold water from the cooler, feed the cats and grind the day's beans, then steep 'em in hot water from the cooler for four minutes, when done pour a mug and come up to the den to check APS.

..dark, hot, with a lot of sugar for me...

How does that saying go?  "Coffee should be sweet as love, black as sin and strong as the devil"

[De Selby]

I've always been a fan, as long as the brew isn't too acidic (like that gasoline they sell at Starbucks.)

Starbucks has quite possibly the worst standard brew coffee ever-I prefer 7-11 to that stuff.

[K Frame]

Coffee is one of life's great frauds.  It smells fantastic and promises to taste divine, but once you take that first sip you realize that you've been cheated.  The taste never lives up to the smell.

Don't know what you've been drinking, but it's sad you've apparently never been introduced to really good coffee.