The only way to have coffee

Black as midnight on a moonless night. I enjoy the occasional creamy and sugary coffee drink like a Frappacino or a peppermint mocha as a tasty desert on occasion, but my everyday is plain black workingmans coffee. I just like the taste of it.

Complicated.

Good coffee that I've gone out of my way to get? Usually black, maybe a little sugar depending. My normal cheapass coffee that I have on the day to day is probably getting cream/sugar.

I really need a lot of flavored creamer at least to make it palatable. However I would prefer to get into black coffee instead. Any suggestions on how? Just keep making it and drinking it until I get accustomed to it I guess?

Not really a big coffee drinker in general, but I did have an iced coffee phase many years ago. I would get it "regular" from Dunkin, which is probably an obscene amount of cream and sugar for the more hardcore coffee aficionados, but for me it was just the quickest and easiest order as someone with limited coffee experience.

is to not play the game

Take what you drink normally and start to slowly remove the amount of cream/sugar you add to it over a period of time.

Try some different roasts to see if they sit better with you, go lighter if you find that the bitter notes are a problem.

I think cream/milk helps to bring forward some of the more subtle flavors in coffee. At least for me, anyway. I also like it to cut down on some of the acidity. those blond roasts friggin kill my stomach. I'd say dark roast is where its at for a deeper flavor and lighter acid content. Can't imagine drinking a light roast with no cream--owie my tummy lol.

Hipster coffee. Gimme that 3000 calories frappochococcino with whipped cream, some kind of caffeinated syrup and crumbled nuts. I never get it, because they're surprisingly bad for your health, I checked, but that's definitely my favorite. Otherwise just cream/sugar will do, I guess.

I drink black in the morning because I hate myself and I deserve bad things 😌

The only coffee I tend to consume is hotel coffee. Because it's there. Dumping chocolate into it is nice and all but you're not really solving a problem. Might as well cut the coffee out of the equation and grab a hot chocolate.

A splash of creamer or half and half. Alternately, I like a spoonful of hot chocolate and cinnamon in my coffee from time to time with it.

@daavpuke: I would argue that what you're describing is Normie Coffee. Hipster coffee is single-origin hand-ground beans run through a V60 with custom papers and gently sipped after checking the strength with a refractometer, while publicly executing anyone who dare enter the same room as your cup of coffee with a carton of milk.

(I like Hipster coffee, btw ;) )

It depends.

Am I looking for coffee, or am I looking for a warmer than usual sugar delivery mechanism? Usually looking for coffee.

@asylumrunner: I could agree with that. I always associated that with PSL, which is not my thing, but it is sugar milk essentially. Plus, this one time I did go to said hipster establishment like you described and asked for sugar, which made the barista give me a death stare like I had just asked them to piss in it. The weird thing is.. They had sugar. The option was there. Anyway, I stopped going there after that. Normie it is.

i need sugar in mine but prefer creamer/milk too . i take mmine extra light extra sweet generally according to my sister a former dunkin donuts manager

I have started intermitted fasting so been sticking to black in the morning. But not too far from me a farm sells half and half and that is incredible . Just a drop is all your coffee needs! Now if we are talking cold brew I love to add this: https://www.reddiwip.com/barista/nitro-coffee-creamer

I have never known anything to smell as good as coffee, but simultaneously taste as vile.

So I think the only way to have coffee is to not, and make tea instead.

If I'm drinking it hot, I prefer straight black coffee, but that's more rare as I'm a huge fan of iced coffee with some almond milk and veeeery light cream.

Three sugars, plenty of milk

Coffee tastes minging, so anything to mask the manky flavour

You cannot talk about the "right way" to have coffee unless you specify what bean were used and how it was prepared.

- I will drink a light or medium roast coffee BLACK, if it was freshly roasted withing 36 hour from excellent beans.
- Most high end coffee made from beans roasted within the last week MIGHT be drinkable BLACK, but typically no.

If when you drink coffee black you should getting notes of berries, flowers, carmel, or chocolate with a a sweet floral aroma. If that is not what you taste there is zero point in drinking that "ashy, charcoal" shit at all - it no impressive it is just sad.

Most people have zero access to a coffee place that roast it own bean and grind them the same day they were roasted; so I have no problem with people putting cream or sugar in their coffee. Some mediocre coffee can be masked by some cream and sugar and still fulfill your addiction - no shame in that.

Straight black coffee. I used to put in a ton of cream and sugar, which just led to stomach issues and weird stuff related to sugar levels. It took some adjustment to enjoy black coffee, but now that's all I'd want.

I mostly drink black decaf at this point, which is a far cry from what I used to do in my early 20's. And you just feel better overall.

My coffee use is strictly utilitarian as a caffeine delivery crutch, so about as dark as possible.

Good coffee, black. Bad coffee, sugar.

I'm betraying my pfp but I tend to prefer lattes. I don't drink coffee every day.

I use a Hario hand grinder, buy my beans a pound at a time, keep'em in the freezer, and use a Chemex with unbleached paper filters. Rinse the filter with boiling water (Hario gooseneck steel kettle of course) to remove the paper taste, pour the rinse into my mug to warm it up, then hit the grounds with a little bit of water to let them bloom, put the kettle back on to simmer, then pour over slowly, keeping the chemex about half full, pouring water on the sides to keep the grounds toward the center/bottom of the filter. Is it a fiddly and ultimately meaningless process? Sure. Does it make incredible tasting coffee? You bet.

I can't respond to this poll because my way to drink coffee is not the only way to drink coffee, and I also enjoy multiple ways of drinking coffee. Cafetiere with a nice medium blend; dark roast espresso; mocha latte with non-dairy milk. It's all good, enjoy the hot bean juice any way you like. Who can stop you??

@quantris: Smooth jazz intensifies.

@heavyweather: I think if I were to devote all this effort I would have to ultimately pour it into the most hideously tacky mug imaginable to try and protect the balance.

@efesell That's the last step, I left it out! It's a big honkin mug with a cute unicorn on it from my parents' wedding lol.

My mug came from a Geek Box a few year ago...ridiculous 20 oz mug for sure...but I do use it all the time. [Probably one of the only useful items that did not break ever sent in a Geek Box.]

Only black coffee (sometimes with sugar)

I actually switched to just English breakfast tea or Darjeeling (w/ sugar but palatable without) because apparently my wittle tummy can’t handle coffee anymore.

If you want to kick-start your day and feel like a superhero, then bold black coffee is the way to go! Nothing beats that intense flavor and the jolt of caffeine to get you going. Who needs milk or sugar anyway?