For years I have augmented the “one step above a muddy puddle” coffee that we drink at work with an overly abundant amount of powdered creamer and Sweet & Low. Recently I decided to take a more active interest in my health (diet, exercise) and decided that it was time for powdered creamer and I to go our separate ways.
This change was not without hesitation, powdered creamer has been a staple in the break room for years. Its not an option so much as a given that it is needed to help the coffee transform into something remotely drinkable in nature.
So I stopped using the creamer, and very soon after stopped using the sweetener and got back to the basics — I went black and became a purist.
At first I complained about how bad the coffee was, but invariably kept drinking it (who says caffeine isn’t addictive). But as time went on I really started to become more acutely aware of the complexity of black coffee that I have in large part been missing all these years.
A good friend and frequent writer here (Muchocheko), has sung the praises of coffee for years, but I have always been seduced by the richness of cream (the real stuff), in my coffee.
I can’t even describe the complexity of taste that black coffee has once you start to really focus on it and enjoy it. I am looking at my beans in a whole new light and am excited to get reacquainted with them in their pure and unspoiled by cream and sugar form.
Espresso based drinks I will still enjoy with, and without milk. Espresso is potent stuff after all, and can handle the addition of milk without too much trouble. And let’s be honest, there is nothing better than a big cup of cappuccino. Some things already are perfect just the way they are.
March 27th, 2007 at 12:03 AM
i had a similar experience in Kona, Hawaii last year. i tried some black Kona coffee at one of the plantation tasting rooms and i thought at the time that it tasted pretty bad, overbrewed, burnt, stale.
but then, for some mysterious reason, at another plantation there i tried it again and really started to appreciate the strong flavor. it was like i was drinking volcano water or something.
now i seek out coffees from farms on the sides of volcanos. they’re not that hard to find and they don’t need to cost anything close to what the Kona beans cost.
i rarely drank black coffee in the past. don’t know what happened. now i have two ways to enjoy the stuff.
it’s all good.
April 4th, 2007 at 11:06 AM
And I’ve been drinking coffee black since high school when I began on the stuff. Always the finest, and always black. I can tell you that after many years now, I have lost some of the distinctions on my palate that I once had for coffee’s subtler variations. It’s disappointing, but I don’t know that I could bother myself to take a hiatus (to rekindle that “first-time” feeling) from such a psychological and physiological aspect of my life. To bring that into perspective, I drink an absolute minimum of 16oz. of coffee a day – truth is, I don’t recall the last time I had less than 32oz.