I’ve tried to be that person who drinks black coffee and looks all cool and grown-up but every time I take a sip it just tastes like hot dirt.
Do people actually enjoy it or do you just get used to it over time? Is there a trick to making it taste better or do you just suffer until you like it?
Comments
you’re probably just having bad coffee. good black coffee tastes good
They don’t flinch because they like it. Acquired taste.
You get used to it. It’s really just easier than having to add cream and sugar every time. 🙂
Different coffee is different levels of bitter, and different brewing methods impact bitterness more.
I’m a super taster, bitter flavors and flavors in general are stronger to me.
I can drink good cold brew black coffee plain still ( iced or heated up, the concept of heating cold brew confuses people who don’t understand how much less bitter it is)
And I eat grapefruit plain
It’s part method of brewing and part acquired taste.
Half the questions on this sub are boiled down to “how do people like this food/drink I don’t like”
You have to first start getting actually good coffee.
Whole bean, light roast, not 100 degrees, and even then, I add a splash of milk just to cut the acidity.
Because at some point, my soul gave up… and my taste buds just adapted to the bitterness of life.
It’s apparently going to come as a surprise, but people like different things.
me multiple times a day…it’s so good
Poorly brewed coffee tastes awful unless it’s mixed with sweeteners, flavors, cream, etc. A good roast that’s properly brewed tastes awesome on its own. “Good roast” and “properly brewed” are still subjective, though.
? If you don’t like black coffee don’t drink it. Unsurprisingly those who do enjoy it, you’re not required to also enjoy it, no different than spicy food.
I will drink instant coffee black room temp. I’m a fucking coffee junky though I don’t even “prefer” the taste I am just willing to drink sludge to get that sweet sweet coffee in me.
For me, I learned to like the taste. Didn’t always have access to milk at work, so I started drinking it black with two sugars.
Temperature is huge factor, there is a “golden hour” to flavor with black coffee and you can’t mask it if its too watery or too strong so the brew quality matters a bit more.
Because it’s delicious, but like I can’t drink beer without slightly cringing so to each their own.
Good coffee is a must. 500ml of a good medium-dark roast brewed with a V60, topped off with four shots of dark roast espresso. Divine.
I’ve had issues with alcohol in the past so in my case, I like black coffee because it has a bite similar to liquor.
I like the bitter taste.
I ran out of milk one day so had my coffee black… I never went back
I drink straight espresso every day.
Do you like beer, wine, whiskey, bitters, kimchi, and the like? Some people just don’t really like those sort of bitter or astringent flavor profiles. They drink mixed drinks and sweet milky coffee.
You gotta drink fresh grounds. I grind mine fresh every morning before I brew a shot.
It’s kind of like booze. At first, I liked those sugary malt beverages, like mikes hard lemonade. Then got into light beer. Now I drink super bitter IPAs.
I like the occasional oat milk latte (and strawberry margarita). But my standard is black coffee.
I used to have milk and sugar in my coffee then one day the milk just made the coffee taste rank and it has since and I’ve no idea why. So after a while on black with sugar we went on holiday self catering and I took my coffee but forgot sugar and every day we went out I forgot to buy some so had a week on just coffee and that’s how I still drink it. Think you appreciate coffee more when it’s black and unsweetened because there’s nothing to mask bad coffee so you tend to stick to nicer stuff.
Cheap coffee typically produces real bitter coffee. Coffee from fresh beans is borderline sweet. The older the bean, the more bitter. That can of Folger’s on the shelf may be good for post-Apocalyptic scenarios, but while we still have live plants it’s worth paying a little extra to get good food and drink. Not hating what you intake is important.
You get used to it.
I drink a bucket of crappy black coffee a day; it’s an acquired taste.
It’s an acquired taste. I started drinking lattes in college but the calories and cost were adding up so I switched to black.
I could drink it black when I lived at home cause my dad bought the good shit, before Keurigs existed.
Good coffee isn’t hard to drink.
It was an acquired taste for me. It also greatly depends on the variety of beans, the roast, and the method. We get the medium dark roast San Francisco Bay Rainforest blend whole beans from Costco and use a regular drip coffee maker.
I rarely drink black coffee at restaurants anymore. I have to add cream and sugar to make it palatable.
its not that hard
I like the bitterness it makes it feel more like a drug
Of course good quality helps (so no Starbucks). But, for me, it’s completely tied into the caffeine addiction part after 30 years plus. Whether it’s actual science or a placebo, I don’t get nearly the same wake up if I add something. And now that it’s pretty much a dependency, nothing beats the taste.
I became too lazy to add cream or sugar. That’s how I started drinking black coffee.
I just didn’t like how much sugar I was drinking many times a day so I just stopped one day. Took a few days to get used to it, maybe a week.
I do primarily drink espresso though so it’s easier to drink black.
How much refined sugar do you consume?
I found when I quit drinking sugary sodas and really processed sweets, black coffee started tasting good
I went from milk in my coffee my entire life to black a few years ago and will never go back. I love the ease. But I did it intentionally. I was sick of being dependent on milk. So I started adding less and less milk and just a bit of honey. Eventually just a bit of honey. And now just straight black. I never liked sweet coffee (and still don’t) but the honey helped the process.
I went from milk in my coffee my entire life to black a few years ago and will never go back. I love the ease. But I did it intentionally. I was sick of being dependent on milk. So I started adding less and less milk and just a bit of honey. Eventually just a bit of honey. And now just straight black. I never liked sweet coffee (and still don’t) but the honey helped the process.
Light roast, high quality
Add milk
It is a reflection of my soul; dark and bitter.
I found it to be an acquired taste.
I started with espresso with flavor syrups added and milk. Then just espresso and milk, then eased into more flavorful drip coffee then into dark roast drip coffee, which is the standard for the US.
As for at home, I think there’s two things that people commonly do that fuck up brewing coffee at home:
Personally, I do a French Press every morning and I grind the beans before each brew. Nothing fancy, just whatever is the cheapest beans at Costco.
I was putting 2 teaspoons for years but realized it was affecting the taste for me too much. Then I did 1 and realized that it didn’t taste any different than if I had put in zero. It’s been decades.
The thought of sugar in it makes me gag lol.
Milk just seemed unnecessary at that point, sort of like putting chocolate morsels on a chocolate cupcake.
I love a sugary iced coffee though.
A few grains of salt in a cup. You don’t even taste the salt, but suddenly, your coffee is less bitter, bbut still black.
For the longest time I thought I just didn’t like coffee. Turns out I just don’t like the stuff that people put in coffee to make it taste not like coffee. Once I went black I never went back.
I started drinking black coffee because I was broke and i wanted every drop in my cup to be precious caffeine. Then after a while, I grew to really like the taste. Now it’s the only way prefer my coffee. In my opinion, the stronger the better. Soon your mind will associate that flavor with the pleasure it will shortly be receiving. This goes for any drug really. The same thing applies to cigarettes and booze too. At first they’re disgusting, but a means to an end. Then you get addicted and crave that flavor you once despised.
Haha I was just taking a sip when I saw your post. Idk I just like it plus it’s safe to drink when I fast. I drink it with a straw to protect my teeth. Sounds weird but I add just a little bit of cold water so I can sip it easier.
If the coffee is fresh and smooth, I can drink it black, and prefer it that way. It’s the aged old grocery store coffee that needs to be doctored up
When I started drinking coffee, it was cream and sugar. Then milk and less sugar. Then milk and even less sugar. Then just milk or milk substitute. Sugar now tastes WAY too sweet in my coffee. But I can’t stand black coffee. If I don’t have milk in the house, I have to go get some.
Because it’s tastes like overtime 🫡🦖
Make it with one shot instead.
How do people drink that sweet shit that smells like a candy bar massacre and tastes like diabetes?
Doesn’t matter, just drink what you like. Nobody cares.
Just drink it until you like it.
>looks all cool and grown-up
Do you know what is actually cool and grown-up? Drinking your coffee, or.other drink of choice, the way that you want it.
If you want to have your coffee with triple cream, five sugars, two different flavour syrups and whipped cream on top, do it and if anyone complains you can think on how empty their lives must be that someone else’s drink choice bothers them.
Definitely can vary in how it’s made. Burnt black coffee is bitter. Well made black coffee is much smoother
i like it, there are all different kinds of coffee so maybe try a bunch until you find one you actually like the taste of. for example if you have any local coffee options and get the whole beans and blend them yourself and see if you notice a difference. there’s also a difference in taste depending on what you use. like a french press is gona have a way different flavor (better) than a keurig will provide. and a regular drip coffee machine will be different from those, etc.
there’s nothing wrong with adding stuff to make it more preferrable though. when i’m out at a coffee shop i’ll get a fancy/flavored espresso drink. if i make espresso at home i usually add some almond milk but also enjoy it plain. but if i’m just having a regular coffee, i prefer it without anything extra. life is short drink it how you like 🙂
When you’re 40, married, and have three pre-teen children in the house you’ll understand
I’ve always liked it, I’m not one for cream and sugar. That goes for everything else I drink too though.
I like it 🤷🏻♂️
How do you know what dirt tastes like?
Started off by having lactose issues, so grew to like it
Now if try a milk based coffee it taste awful to me,l
Honestly, it starts with drinking GOOD coffee
You can drink any coffee if you put enough sugar and milk in it. But good coffee is best, and can only be enjoyed black
Source: I was someone who was adamantly against coffee until i went on a road trip to Spain with a friend… it set the bar terribly high, and that first cup of continental coffee back in the states was very jarring
Just like they drink whiskey neat.
‘Hot dirt!’ What a wonderful phrase. That’s why I’ll take a double espresso to kickstart a day when I’m hungover.
Yeah, I’m some kind of a freak when I go to Starbuck’s and order black coffee. The whole place stops to look at me. But—they do make a decent cup of coffee.
I drink nothing but black folgers everyday… i do actually like it
I’ve been drinking my coffee black, no sweetener since I was twelve. I am now sixty-five.
My parents and grandparents also drank their coffee black, no sweetener.
You start using less and less sugar until the day it’s weird to drink it with sugar. That’s what I did. I started swapping regular sugar to brown sugar (actually, moscovado sugar) and then I started adding less and less, until I stopped adding it. I drink it black now, BUT I still prefer to have my coffee with something sweet to balance the flavors.
I got tired of running out of milk or sugar and started drinking coffee black. I lived in an apartment and didn’t want to carry any more groceries upstairs from however far away I parked than I needed or have to get these things at random any time I ran out just to have coffee. I can’t put stuff in it anymore, tastes weird.
I started drinking coffee black as a teenager to prove I was manly. At a certain point it became more palatable than any other type of coffee. Not sure why or how it happened, just did.
I only drink my coffee black. The key for me is to get a good medium roast. Don’t get dark roast and drink it straight. Dark roast is much more acidic and bitter and meant to have sweeteners added to it to balance it out. Medium roasts aren’t like that. They don’t have much acidity and bitterness, and are more geared toward not needing anything added.
My daily black coffee ritual:
Drink it fast enough and you don’t notice the taste.
I used to put an ungodly amount of cream and sugar in my coffee. Like .. so much. So I stopped.
finding good coffee, stuff like Stabucks is burnt as fuck, go to a local coffee place that you have heard good reviews for, and try a few different types, like a nice light roast
Growing up, I never understood the phrase it requires an acquired taste. Then I heard my father in law say that about coffee and then I understood. You drink it until your taste buds just give up and say ok I can handle it now. I never pushed it to that point. I still drink it like it’s a desert. Full of dairy products, sugar and flavoring. Foofoofied I call it.
Some people need a catalyst to be bitter and hate life.
I drink one to two pots of black coffee everyday, but I got 5 sense amnesia, so good bad I wont remember the flavor in moments, so my trick is, I don’t care because I wont remember it.
Yeah its awful… all hot, bitter and watery… I don’t understand the facination with it at all.
I genuinely like my coffee. ☕️
Also, different people like different things. It’s just that simple.
Absolutely love back coffee. I get whole beans from a local roaster. They get beans from all over the world. Grind them fresh for every cup and use a French press. It’s one of my favourite pleasures in life.
I have always loved the smell of coffee, then started drinking it as a teen. My parents drank coffee black, so that’s what I did. It was bitter, sure, but the smell was amazing, and I didn’t mind the bitterness. Now i love it.
For some reason unbeknownst to me, about 25 years ago one day I just got a cup of coffee and drank it black. It opened the coffee world up to me. I started using French press, percolater, espresso, pour over, and every way imaginable. Never put anything in my coffee again.
Not trying to be cheeky by saying this: buy & brew better coffee.
This is how I felt before trying high-end coffee from an expensive hipster coffee joint. They advised me to try it black because it tasted really good that way, I was shocked black coffee could taste good. Then I got home and started down the rabbit hole of googling how to make coffee.
A good burr grinder, quality fresh beans instead of something in a can, weighing beans rather than using a measuring scoop, using properly filtered water, and brewing with something like a pour over instead of the Mr. coffee all make a huge, huge difference.
If nothing else, a burr grinder + fresh beans. Don’t buy a bladed grinder. Black coffee made well is better than a milky sugary coffee made poorly.
If you truly like the taste of coffee, you add nothing to it when drinking it
If you do not like the taste of coffee you add sweeteners, cream and other flavors to disguise the taste of the coffee that you do not like the taste of.
I love black coffee. Why do something to just try and seem grown up? Lol. Just do what makes you happy you sausage. I love the bitterness. The stronger the better.
I drink it dark, bitter, and scalding as my ex-wife’s soul.
I add salt to it and the bitterness is gone. Try it…it works
I like the bitter taste and the heat. Black coffee is only good when it’s still very hot, IMO. After it gets cold, I put it over ice with cream.
Black with honey is the way.
If you get good coffee, black coffee really isn’t that bitter.
If you’re American it might just be you’re drinking shit coffee.
I started drinking my coffee black when working an overnight shift. Worse, it came out of a machine. Now I can’t stand stuff in my coffee nor do I like flavored coffee. I compare black coffee to wine—you do learn to appreciate the varieties of beans more when it’s black.
Work night shift with free coffee. After a month, you just snort the grounds.
You just have to stop giving a fuck
Bad coffee and good coffee are vastly different in flavor. Good coffee is not bitter.
There’s a lot of things involved in getting a good coffee though, but if you just want to try it, search for a “specialty” coffee shop around your area.
Anthony Bourdain once said everybody should drink black coffee and red wine and eat dark chocolate just to retrain their brains to enjoy food and drink beyond just being bombarded by sweetness. I think it’s just that. I think good black coffee tastes amazing. (Shitty black coffee is a different story, but I’ll still drink it.)
All coffee just tastes like burnt asshole to me. Drink tea!
Good coffee doesn’t need crap put into it. Bad coffee does.
Love the taste of rich dark coffee ☕️
We actually like coffee
It tastes like dirt because it was ground this morning.
Because unlike you, we like coffee. You like milk and sugar. We aren’t the same.
Black without sugar is the only way to drink coffee.
Don’t get me wrong, you’re totally fine if you like to have a mocha venti frappuccino pumpkin spice with cookies and bacon, just don’t call it coffee.
I was only able to drink it after purposefully cutting down on sugar a few years ago. It did taste horrible at first for several weeks, but I was determined to keep doing it because i was tols that my tastebuds were super out of whack due to all the processedfoods and sugars i was eating. now i can just drink it with a little half and half and its great. I actually enjoy it. Really cuts down on sugar and calories in my day. I still go for a half sweet peppermint mocha at my local coffee shop once or twice a month.
I drink black coffee and I enjoy it.
I’m not cool because I drink black coffee, I just like black coffee. I don’t “eeewww” to someone that puts cream and sugar in their beverage, I just drink my black coffee while they compromise their dignity.
Black coffee with a ahitty bean or destroyed through shitty prep or by being overly diluted is really awful. Maybe you need a really freshly ground well roasted bean to change your mind. If you can taste the difference between chocolate beans of one region vs another, or the same grape grown in different regions but then also hate black coffee, that perfect brew is still in your future.
I used to hate it. Then a few years ago, I started liking foods I always hated: black coffee, onions, bleu cheese, etc. I can eat all kinds of foods now! Still hate olives, but I try them every now and again to see if they’ll join the party.
My journey to black started with 2 creams 2 sugars.
Then to 1 cream 1 sugar. Then just one sugar and finally to black. It makes a difference what kind of coffee you are drinking. If it is big chain coffee store or grocery store coffee it won’t taste great black. It is the nerdy single origin beans with light to medium roasts and roasted with in the last 2 weeks that typically have good flavour on its own. Try finding some coffee roasters and try their coffees out
In my opinion it’s strictly a matter of having the right coffee
Try black cold brew, it’s seriously good. Must be brewed cold though, there is a difference.
Light roast. It’s smooth yet carries a lot of caffeine.
i use a french press and good quality local medium roast. Game changer.
Really good coffee tastes great black, anything else is gross. I’ll try a cup black, but often than not put a splash of cream to smooth it out.