Coffee. What are your preferences?

Quote: Dalex64

I don't drink coffee.

+1 Never acquired a taste for it, and try to keep my caffeine tolerance low by avoiding energy drinks, dark sodas, etc.

Mrs. Carumba however, loves her Keurig. I only found out last week that the pods don't contain liquid. I thought they were like the liquid coffee creamers due to their similar shapes. I thought they contained a liquid concentrate that was mixed with hot water. Sort of like the way soda syrup is mixed with carbonated water in a soda fountain.

Quote: Ayecarumba

+1 Never acquired a taste for it,

You're joking, right? ;)

Quote: Nareed

You're joking, right? ;)

No, seriously. I was always warned off the Java as a kid.. "You'll stunt your growth", and didn't pick up the habit in College, like so many others.

If coffee did not have caffeine, do you think it would be the world wide beverage it is today? Same with Red Bull. People put up with, or mask the taste for the stimulant hit.

Quote: Ayecarumba

If coffee did not have caffeine, do you think it would be the world wide beverage it is today? Same with Red Bull. People put up with, or mask the taste for the stimulant hit.

My dad drank decaf for about 10 years.

Quote: Ayecarumba

No, seriously.

I can't accept that seriously. :)

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If coffee did not have caffeine, do you think it would be the world wide beverage it is today?

If chocolate and tea and coca and a host of other things didn't have any stimulant properties....

I don't think sweeteners and milk, cream, etc. necessarily mask the taste of coffee, rather that they combine well together. Mocha tastes neither like coffee nor chocolate, for example. Raw chicken doesn't taste good (and in quantity, it smells awful). But it would be a stretch to say we cook it with herbs and spices, or sauces, in order to mask its taste.

Quote: Ayecarumba

If coffee did not have caffeine, do you think it would be the world wide beverage it is today? Same with Red Bull. People put up with, or mask the taste for the stimulant hit.

That's how I feel about alcohol
alcohol itself has got to be one of the most vilest tasting liquids out there
Every alcohol drink mankind has invented is to mask the taste of alcohol itself.
If beer had no alcohol, sales would drop to hardly anything.

Quote: terapined

That's how I feel about alcohol
alcohol itself has got to be one of the most vilest tasting liquids out there
Every alcohol drink mankind has invented is to mask the taste of alcohol itself.
If beer had no alcohol, sales would drop to hardly anything.

The aversion is enhanced if it's something you got sick from. (still remember the combination of peppermint schnapps and beer from college -- bowing to the white bowl in the morning.)

Quote: terapined

Every alcohol drink mankind has invented is to mask the taste of alcohol itself.

Actually, beer and wine were first developed as a means of preserving grain and fruit, as well as providing a reliable supply of clean water. Beer and wine in ancient times had a very low alcohol content. That's also how come the custom of drinking wine or beer with lunch and dinner came about.

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If beer had no alcohol, sales would drop to hardly anything.

I thought beer was made with a high alcohol content to mask the taste of beer. Ergo you're probably right.

All that said, one can develop or acquire a taste for anything. But not all acquired tastes are for stimulants or drugs. Mustard is an acquired taste, too.

I sometimes drink just ADC with sugar and real cream. Not skim milk, light cream or at the lease half and half. In the last 2-3 years I have gotten on iced coffee in summer mostly. Just got a stovetop espresso maker to make coffee house iced coffee. Haven't had the most time to try it what with the 7 day weeks and weird sleep schedule that will thankfully soon end. Then try and make the good stuff.

I am not hooked on coffee like so many are. Caffeine is weird, for it to really work you have to have your body cleansed of it. Has a half-life of about 6 hours so it is not a straight line process but rather one of decay.

I like Colombian or French roast, or medium roast. I have a burr grinder after I became a coffee snob in Hawaii (friend is a pilot who has a coffee farm in Kona and makes amazing beans, hand-picked and roasted). So usually grind my own and make it medium-strong. Have an inexpensive capp/exp maker I haven't used for a while. Got a Keurig for my birthday, haven't transitioned yet, but think the commercial k-cups are too expensive/serving, so getting the little grind-your-own cartridge.

Can be pretty happy with chock-ful-o-nuts or eight-o-clock roast, but also enjoyed 20 years with Gevalia before they went hugely commercial.

Tea is a wonderful thing if it's English Breakfast from England (drank a type in London that can't be imported to the US, so got it in bulk, and I do mean bulk) with amazing flavor.

If anybody wants to order 100% Kona from my friend, PM me for contact info, but it's expensive, I warn you. It also wins international cupping awards, so kind of like paying for good wine vs table wine.

I do like a little cream and sugar, not a lot, in either coffee or tea. Like someone said above, it blends really well, makes them something more than the parts. However, really good coffee, not too strong, is amazing black as well. As is tea over ice, fresh-brewed. However, I don't have the trick for consistent strong tea brewed without a bitter aftertaste yet; if anybody knows the secret, I'd like to hear it. (Some times it's great, some times it has that back-of-the-throat glack aftertaste and I can't figure out what I'm doing differently). Thanks!