The Case for Bad Coffee

[SlitheryDee]

Bad coffee seems redundant to me.

You know I've thought about this before. Coffee really is a bitter, unpleasantly flavored drink that I've simply gotten so used to that I rounded the bend on it. It's all about the caffeine. There's no other way I'd keep coming back to something that tastes like coffee enough times to acquire a taste for it.

The fact of that matter is that now that I DO have a taste for it, I enjoy it quite a bit though. I wouldn't have believed it before coffee, but a so called "acquired taste" really is a rewarding thing ultimately rather than just being another term for "something that tastes bad".

I'd like to see how many people would be interested in coffee if it didn't have caffeine in it though, or beer if it didn't have alcohol for that matter. The gourmet niches of both products share a lot of similarities.

 

[waggy]

The fact of that matter is that now that I DO have a taste for it, I enjoy it quite a bit though. I wouldn't have believed it before coffee, but a so called "acquired taste" really is a rewarding thing ultimately rather than just being another term for "something that tastes bad".

I'd like to see how many people would be interested in coffee if it didn't have caffeine in it though, or beer if it didn't have alcohol for that matter. The gourmet niches of both products share a lot of similarities.

I hated coffee and beer the first few times i had it. The reason i enjoy coffee now is my oldest would always make a pot. it's hot and something to drink in the morning. I eventually started to enjoy the taste. I happy with hyvee's house brand. 8'clock is good but im fine with the cheaper stuff.

with beer i never really started drinking until i was like 27ish. I would drink at parties and such but preferred hard stuff.

Now my favorite is Bells Oberon. i will have 2 a few times a week. I MIGHT go through a 6 pack of it in the summer. I also enjoy trying other stuff i get recommendations on. I enjoy the flavor of them. sure the buzz helps too!

 

[s0me0nesmind1]

You know I've thought about this before. Coffee really is a bitter, unpleasantly flavored drink that I've simply gotten so used to that I rounded the bend on it. It's all about the caffeine. There's no other way I'd keep coming back to something that tastes like coffee enough times to acquire a taste for it.

THIS.

I've already switched to the direct drug. Plenty still live in denial and will proclaim it's for the "taste"... Yes... "taste"

 

[Crono]

THIS.

I've already switched to the direct drug. Plenty still live in denial and will proclaim it's for the "taste"... Yes... "taste"

Don't blame others for your lack of taste buds/smell. That's just the luck of the draw.

And I do have caffeine powder on hand. Doesn't mean I don't still drink coffee and tea.

 

[MongGrel]

Drink it for the taste mostly myself.

Knock yourself out with the pills.

 

[quikah]

Not sure what you're on about. A Keurig is essentially a drip brewer for single cups. And it tastes like coffee, because it is coffee. My own regular drip brewer essentially can't make anything less than 4 cups. I don't need 4 cups of coffee in the morning.

There are other brewing machines that will brew less than 4 cups, but you still have to use the filters and grind the beans (or buy pre-ground coffee), etc.

Keurig is wasteful for packaging, but its attraction is exactly that - the convenience.

Now there are lots of bad-tasting Keurig K-cups, but you don't have to buy the bad tasting ones.

There is no real convenience though (maybe save about 30s of time). I put a filter in my 4-cup Mr. Coffee and dump some grounds in and pour water. Takes about 2-3 minutes total including brew time. You can pour in 1-4 cups of water, so I don't know what the problem is. I use the 4 indicator and get 2 normal size cups of coffee out of it.

 

[irishScott]

Yeah, because only children enjoy good coffee.

I'm not above Folgers/Maxwell House if offered, but with an almost negligible increase in time my French Press can produce something that simply tastes a helluva lot better and is more enjoyable. It doesn't take 15 minutes, more like 9 (~ 5 to heat the water and grind beans, 4 to steep). And I don't usually shell out for fancy beans either, 8 o'clock beans (which can be found in Walmart and just about every grocery store) blow any canned powder out of the water.

This guy's issue is his coffee is tied to his identity. Which is IMO rather dumb regardless of quality.

For a time, coffee wasn't just my passion, it was my livelihood. In my 20s, I managed a coffee shop in a tony Cincinnati neighborhood where we played Yo La Tengo on the stereo in the morning and Miles Davis at night. When Starbucks came to town in the mid '90s, I signed on as an assistant manager, and remained in that position until I was 28 years old. I watched with little shame as my friends became lawyers and business owners, journalists and chemists. I was proud of the fact that I knew my ginger-bready Ethiopian Sidamos from my rummy Ethiopian Harrars. I knew that it took 19 seconds to pull the perfect espresso shot. For a while, I considered entering a Starbucks training program that would allow me to open a location of my own. I wanted coffee—really good coffee—to be my life.

And now he enjoys bad coffee not for the taste, but for what it represents:

Bad coffee is the stuff you make a full pot of on the weekends just in case some friends stop by. It's what you sip when you're alone at the mechanic's shop getting your oil change, thinking about where your life has taken you; what you nurse as you wait for a loved one to get through a tough surgery. It's the Sanka you share with an elderly great aunt while listening to her tell stories you've heard a thousand times before. Bad coffee is there for you. It is bottomless. It is perfect.

He hasn't grown up, he's still basing his identity on a freaking beverage.

 

[SlitheryDee]

THIS.

I've already switched to the direct drug. Plenty still live in denial and will proclaim it's for the "taste"... Yes... "taste"

Thing is, now that I have acquired the taste for it, I think I'd much rather drink my caffeine in coffee form than take it in pill form. Drinking coffee in the morning has become a pleasant and anticipated experience for me. Everything about it from the smell of it brewing to the heat of the first sip going down is tied to positive feelings and the promise of shedding the last of my drowsiness to get ready for the day. I don't think it could possibly work as well without the whole ritual now.

 

[nakedfrog]

I've known multiple people that said they enjoy the smell of coffee brewing, but not the taste. Seems weird to me. I do like the taste of coffee.

 

[Eug]

You know I've thought about this before. Coffee really is a bitter, unpleasantly flavored drink that I've simply gotten so used to that I rounded the bend on it. It's all about the caffeine. There's no other way I'd keep coming back to something that tastes like coffee enough times to acquire a taste for it.

The fact of that matter is that now that I DO have a taste for it, I enjoy it quite a bit though. I wouldn't have believed it before coffee, but a so called "acquired taste" really is a rewarding thing ultimately rather than just being another term for "something that tastes bad".

I'd like to see how many people would be interested in coffee if it didn't have caffeine in it though, or beer if it didn't have alcohol for that matter. The gourmet niches of both products share a lot of similarities.

I drink mainly decaf, because I like the taste, with cream in it that is.

I'm not a big fan of black coffee.

I hate sugar in my coffee though.

In general, my philosophy is that if I need the caffeine in coffee, then I'm not getting enough sleep.

The only other time I "needed" the caffeine was when I got back from my vacation in Italy. In Italy I was having espresso like 5X a day, just because it was everywhere and it was so good. When I got back to Canada I stopped with the espresso, and had massive withdrawl symptoms and had to go back to caffeinated coffee for a while just to cope.

 

[BurnItDwn]

We are lazy, so we use a simple burr grinder, with drip coffee maker. press button to grind, dump grinds into the coffee maker, fill up the water, and in 2 minutes, we have 190 deg coffee. I love coffee and drink every day a 40oz thermos of the stuff, woman usually drinks quite a bit too ... Instant coffee is blah, drinkable, but, I'd rather have tea.

 

[slag]

Caffeine in coffee gives me a buzz i can feel. I dislike coffee unless mixed at a 1:4 ratio of creamer to coffee.

 

[evident]

We are lazy, so we use a simple burr grinder, with drip coffee maker. press button to grind, dump grinds into the coffee maker, fill up the water, and in 2 minutes, we have 190 deg coffee. I love coffee and drink every day a 40oz thermos of the stuff, woman usually drinks quite a bit too ... Instant coffee is blah, drinkable, but, I'd rather have tea.

There's nothing wrong with this "lazy" method. it still makes damn good coffee.

 

[Eug]

I don't like "creamer", if you mean non-dairy creamer. Has to be 10% or 18% real cream or I'm not interested.

We are lazy, so we use a simple burr grinder, with drip coffee maker. press button to grind, dump grinds into the coffee maker, fill up the water, and in 2 minutes, we have 190 deg coffee. I love coffee and drink every day a 40oz thermos of the stuff, woman usually drinks quite a bit too ... Instant coffee is blah, drinkable, but, I'd rather have tea.

Why do you say this is the lazy method? This is what we do, and it's a standard method of making coffee. Although the in-laws bought us a coffee maker with a built-in grinder so it does the grinding and dumping of grounds into filter automatically.

 

[SlitheryDee]

I drink mainly decaf, because I like the taste, with cream in it that is.

I'm not a big fan of black coffee.

I hate sugar in my coffee though.

In general, my philosophy is that if I need the caffeine in coffee, then I'm not getting enough sleep.

The only other time I "needed" the caffeine was when I got back from my vacation in Italy. In Italy I was having espresso like 5X a day, just because it was everywhere and it was so good. When I got back to Canada I stopped with the espresso, and had massive withdrawl symptoms and had to go back to caffeinated coffee for a while just to cope.

I think I could gain some enjoyment from decaf now too, but only because I've already acquired the taste for coffee. If you took me back to when I first began drinking coffee and tried to introduce me to it with decaf, i'd probably tell you to eff off with your hot bitter liquid that seemingly has no other redeeming qualities.

You might tell me that if I only drank enough of it, it would start tasting good to me. To that I might reply, "why work to make myself like this one thing when there are other readily available beverages I already like"?

No, for me it needs caffeine to get me in the door. After that, once it has already been added to my repertoire of "things I like", I might be able to enjoy it without caffeine. Even then it would be with a somewhat hollow feeling, as though something essential was missing from the experience.

 

[fuzzybabybunny]

I've known multiple people that said they enjoy the smell of coffee brewing, but not the taste. Seems weird to me. I do like the taste of coffee.

I used to be that way when I was young. I love the round roast-y smell but I never liked coffee itself, probably because I didn't know how to take my coffee. The taste of black coffee was always too sharp for me, so the taste was always different from the smell. Then I had some coffee from a vending machine that mixed in lots of cream and sugar and I began to like it. Then I bought a drip machine and some decent coffee and found out that using a bit of creamer and sugar made it much more palatable.

I still don't prefer black coffee. I need the roundness of at least a bit of cream and a bit of sugar to make it enjoyable.

 

[fuzzybabybunny]

An interesting thing that I've noticed, having been in Australia and New Zealand, is that Americans like myself can appreciate a good drip whereas Aussies and Kiwis look down upon it. I can empathize with the author in the OP - sitting at a diner and getting endless refills of cheap mediocre batch-made drip coffee while reading the morning paper or whatever is a great feeling. It's simply a different feeling compared to sitting at a real coffee shop sipping on an espresso-based flat white made from the day's freshly roasted and ground beans.

For me it's not good or bad. It's just different. I certainly don't think that drip coffee is wretched, just different. The taste and mouthfeel for me make the two into almost different beverages that should be enjoyed on their own individual merits.

Unfortunately I think the vast majority of instant coffee is just objectively awful, and I've tried a bunch in different countries there it's hard or impossible to actually find ground coffee. The exception is Nescafe Taster's Choice (I think that's what it's called), but it seems to only be available in the US.

There have been other instant coffees that are alright, but again the difference is so pronounced from ground coffee that I prefer to think of them as different beverages altogether.

 

[feralkid]

THIS.

I've already switched to the direct drug. Plenty still live in denial and will proclaim it's for the "taste"... Yes... "taste"

A rather soul-less approach, but to each his own; here you go, buddy, dinner's on me!

 

[vi edit]

For me coffee is more a ritual than a chemical need. It's the prep and morning programming of "time to make the coffee". Grinding. Smelling it. Pouring it into french press and stirring in hot water. Setting the timer and going on to the rest of my routine. Pressing. The sound of coffee pouring into my glass. Watching the design that the creamer makes as the hot coffee separates it out. Then putting your hands on that hot cup of coffee and enjoying the first sip and it warms you up all the way to your belly on a cold morning.

A hot cup of coffee on a cold morning is a small cup of heaven.

 

[SirStev0]

Agree, except with the bolded part. Why?

This stuff is delicious.

That may be the only palatable one.

I made the mistake of cracking one of these open:

http://www.ratebeer.com/beer/three-floyds-dark-lord-russian-imperial-stout/15917/

Went to Dark Lord Day a couple years ago. I had a great time. Lots of interesting beers from the area. Stood in line to get the Dark Lord.

I had to gag it down. Still have 3 more bottles. Pretty sure I can sell them on Ebay for some scratch.
It just tastes toxic.

Give me a Bitters any day over that shit. Or a Gueuze. Been really into Gueuze's lately.
That's a beer that requires technique to perfect. Born out of necessity.
Its probably the only pretentious beer style I am still into.

 

[CraKaJaX]

I left defending my stance on coffee and I return to a thread about coffee AND beer. This is a thread I could get used to.

 

[DrPizza]

THIS.

I've already switched to the direct drug. Plenty still live in denial and will proclaim it's for the "taste"... Yes... "taste"

Then, why do people drink decaffeinated coffee? I absolutely love opening up a fresh bag of coffee and inhaling deeply. The aroma is intoxicating. And, I love the flavor - black. I might agree with you to an extent about the taste for some people - they have to water it down with half a cup of cream, and a few spoonfuls of sugar.

 

[OverVolt]

Then, why do people drink decaffeinated coffee? I absolutely love opening up a fresh bag of coffee and inhaling deeply. The aroma is intoxicating. And, I love the flavor - black. I might agree with you to an extent about the taste for some people - they have to water it down with half a cup of cream, and a few spoonfuls of sugar.

Me too. I love the coffee aroma, and the whole process. Waking up, checking the news, waiting for the coffee to brew, taking a couple sips etc.

The problem though is eventually you get sick of coffee even just for a day, but if you skip it you get a headache.

Wake up and still have a little indigestion from last night? Hello Coffee! Not.

So I have both rather interchangeably. Typically coffee when I'm more relaxed, wake up early, etc. And a caffeine pill and a full glass of water if I don't feel well, or whatever.

 

[lxskllr]

The problem though is eventually you get sick of coffee even just for a day, ...

Never heard of such a thing :^D

 

[OverVolt]

Never heard of such a thing :^D

Would make an interesting poll. The best way is probably a thermos and to drink it at your leisure. Some days I can see people not wanting coffee until noon.