Coffee Corner: What do you like in your coffee?

[Jeff B]

I'm one who likes the flavor/aroma of coffee yet I can't drink it all-black. Whether iced or warm I always garnish it with some form of cream and sugar (usually cream and cocoa thus making a mocha).

Jeff

[Robin Garr]

Nothing but black for American coffee. I'm happy with a soylatte from the local coffee shop in the morning, though.

[Frank Deis]

I learned how to drink black coffee during a dieting phase decades ago. Now it's really rare for me to use cream or sugar.

I'll mainly do that when it's rotten coffee in a meeting at work, or after a meal at a restaurant.

Totally can not abide flavoring in my coffee. Hazelnut?? More like Chemical Factory.

[Jeff B]

I learned how to drink black coffee during a dieting phase decades ago. Now it's really rare for me to use cream or sugar.

I'll mainly do that when it's rotten coffee in a meeting at work, or after a meal at a restaurant.

Totally can not abide flavoring in my coffee. Hazelnut?? More like Chemical Factory.

I'm with you Frank. At least in regards to hazlenut. It's just an awful flavor. I do love chocolate with coffee though. Sometimes literally (eating dark chocolate with a coffee).

Jeff

[Jeff B]

I think the reason I can't drink all black coffee is that it tastes harsh and watery to me. Plus, I think of coffee as more of a "luxury companion". Thus, I like to give it some body. I only have it maybe twice a day and so I don't really "drink" coffee as much as viewing it as a "treat", if you will.

Jeff

[Doug Surplus]

Currently, a couple of splashes of 2% milk. It seems to add just enough sweetness and enhance the coffee flavor. I can, howver, drink good coffee straight.

[Otto]

I make sure I only by great quality coffee so there's never any need to mix things into it.

[David M. Bueker]

Learned to drink it with cream and sugar back when I started working, and the terrible quality of the coffee required it. I drink much better coffee now, but the habit has stuck EXCEPT with dessert where I will normally drink black coffee.

[Sam Platt]

Black only. I can't stand any added sugar, cream or flavoring. That applies equally to Jamaican Blue Mountain and discount rot-gut.

I started attempting to drink coffee when I was very young in order to emulate my grandfather. He took his coffee black so I took mine black even though I nearly gagged with each micro-sip.

[Carl Eppig]

Chocolate milk, real chocolate milk, not the lo fat abberations.

[Jon Peterson]

Half & half or cream only. thanks. In college, I used to use sugar in my coffee until I pulled an all-nighter doing a paper and got the shakes after 7 or 8 cups of sugared coffee; I quit the coffee cold turkey. Edit: I quit the sugar, not the coffee. I love coffee!

[Ian Sutton]

It varies during the day, between a morning cappuccino, through to afternoon/evening macchiato (I'll sometimes go for something between the two - the coffee shops guys at work refer to it as a short). No sugar, no flavourings and I even prefer the cappuccino without chocolate.

[Brian K Miller]

On all except the most bone chilling days (and yes, in the Sacramento Valley we get these socked in tule fog December days that are miserable) I like my coffee with ice, lots of cold milk, and good chocolate...the kind of chocolate which does not always even dissolve that way in an iced coffee frou frou beverage.

[Neil Courtney]

Cream. Or chocolate/cocoa as a mochachino in a cafe.

Experimented the other day and made a Greek coffee. Lots of coffee, three teaspoons of sugar, boiled in a saucepan for a while. Made two short blacks. Yum! Might cut the sugar back to two next time.

Never drink coffee straight after a meal. Does not seem right to destroy the taste of a nice desert with coffee.

[Jenise]

Black only. Good coffee only. Will put nutmeg and a bit of brown sugar in a good cappuccino, but I probably don't have more than two of those a month .

[Mike Filigenzi]

If it's regular American coffee, then I usually have a splash of half-and-half in it, although I don't mind it black. Cream is too goopy, lower fat milk just doesn't give it the same smooth richness. Same goes for iced coffee in the summer time.

[Bill Spohn]

Black only. For good coffee.

In the mood, I'll add a dash of cinnamon or cardamom (North African influence) to the pot but not using best grade beans. Also been known to add a small splash of heavy cream to a double espresso, but for some reason not big on dusting with anything on top - leave those Starbucks shakers alone.

[Jenise]

Bill, what do you mean about the grade of coffee? Do you mean you sometimes prefer lower grades?

[Bill Spohn]

Bill, what do you mean about the grade of coffee? Do you mean you sometimes prefer lower grades?

No, I prefer always good beans, but lots of lesser breeds keep appearing around here as the quarter master corps seems unconvinced about quality justifying price.

So when I run out of good beans and have to use supermarket cheapies or even, on occasion break into the Italian espresso beans, I am then more likely to 'adulterate' with a whiff of cardamom or a soupcon of cinnamon.

I am picky about my coffee. I like one, and one only Starbucks blend and when I went to buy some this morning they told me I'd get $5 off if I bought their Christmas blend instead. I told them to keep their money and just give me the coffee I wanted (they were decent enough to not charge me for the hot coffee I also bought).

Coffee that I am willing to add anything but the odd splash of cream to has to parallel in quality the sort of sparkling wine I would consider adding soda or orange juice to - very basic so no waste.

And I cannot abide flavoured coffees like hazelnut either.

[Jenise]

Okay, I get you now. We're on the same page.

[Daisy D]

Learned to drink it with cream and sugar back when I started working, and the terrible quality of the coffee required it. I drink much better coffee now, but the habit has stuck EXCEPT with dessert where I will normally drink black coffee.

I was like you David in that the way I 'learned' to drink coffee was with cream & sugar. These days - even though I buy better coffee especially since I am the one that stocks the supply for the 'office' - I still put a little cream in it. If I enhance it with any flavor it tends to be of a chocolate variety. My brother brought me drinking chocolate from Germany that I will mix in from time to time.

After dinner at a restaurant, black only.