To those who drink their coffee black: How do you DO it? I'm trying to train myself to like it (I usually add a lot of soy creamer but figure I don't need the extra calories) but uggggghhhhhh.
For those who have asked, here's a photo of our coffee machine. @jridpath.bsky.social is the main coffee person in the family & has ramped up our gear over the yrs. Took me a while to learn how to use this one! J adjusts grinder settings when we switch coffee beans.
My coffee is "Americano" style.
Last year my then 94 year old mom said she was trying to cut back on coffee and butter because it was “better” not to consume them, and I asked, but do you enjoy them? And she said, yes. And I said, Mom, just keep enjoying them.
It makes me sad that enjoying small things is seen as “bad”
Life is too short to put calorie reduction ahead of taste. Your soy creamer can probably be walked or houseworked or gardened off. If you enjoy coffee with creamer, keep enjoying coffee that way or enjoy something else instead. Love your coffee your way.
Enjoy your creamer! Life is short and a modest daily joy like a perfect cup of coffee with a tablespoon of soy creamer isn’t going to figure in your list of regrets!
I started drinking coffee while doing a very boring envelope-stuffing job at my mum’s work, and quickly figured out that if office coffee was equally disgusting with milk and sugar as without, I might as well drink it black. This method isn’t feasible for everyone, unfortunately.
I've tried stevia a while back but don't like the taste. re: smooth roast - To show you how coffee-ignorant, I am, I don't even know what that exactly MEANS. 😁 I just use the beans my husband buys (he's the coffee snob in the family 😁). I grind them then use his fancypants espresso machine.
Have you tried oat milk in your coffee? It's my # 1 non dairy choice for coffee. It's a thicker and smoother consistency than regular soy milk, tho it's obviously not a creamer! (I've never tried almond milk, but I think it would be grainy.)
I've tried oat milk but it just isn't the same; I also haven't found an oat milk creamer, but keep looking! I usually have oat milk instead of cow's milk because of a decreasing digestive tolerance to the latter.
I've enjoyed Chobani's non-dairy creamer, and it seems to have a decent shelf life, but I'm not sure how good it is in terms of calories (I never looked!).
They do make an oat-based version, too, but I've never tried it.
Country Crock has a non-dairy whipping cream which is great (it really whips!) and says it can be used for all the same things as heavy cream. Its ingredient list is minimal, but it's probably a pricey thing for coffee and it says to use opened package w/in 5 days, which can be tough. . .
I love my cream and half'n'half, but we had Califia oat milk creamer at a gathering and it was good, worth getting a shelf-stable carton for when we run out of the dairy and can't get to the store.
Maybe it's a simple as using a different type of creamer. I've switched to oat milk for my morning brew. Be "that guy" and compare labels on the various creamers or switch to plain soy milk and use real sugar or your sweetener of choice if you want it sweeter.
We drink a low-acid coffee. You also may want to drop down from a dark roast to a medium roast. Acidic dark-roast coffee needs milk of some kind... IMO.
OH, that might be the issue, then. Switching to diff coffee beans is problematic, tho, because I don't want to have to clean out the coffee grinder each time (J prefers dark-roast). But I might expt with already-ground medium roast and/or another method. Thx for the tip, Harold!
I searched for someone saying the same thing in the thread before replying, but yeah, you might wanna try lighter roasts! I really dislike darker ones and my coffee usually i honey-colored instead:
Possible solution to not cleaning out the grinder--get a second one. We have a small grinder and grind only enough beans for one cup, use it all, then can grind different coffee the next time...
I love the illustration, your coffee setup makes me jealous, and I agree about using light or medium roasts for black coffee. Maybe you already know that mostly pre-ground coffee is ground for drip machines and is… disappointing in an espresso machine. I wanted to spare you my mistake, just in case
I've had a lot of luck with cold immersion coffee. This one is packaged in a handy motor-oil tribute jug. It's made via a chilled, multi-hour extraction process with filtered water. The result is very low acid...
High octane to say the least.
It's made at a crossover coffee / motorcycle tribute shop in Barrio Logan, San Diego! The folks who work there are super kind, and it's catty-corner to one of my favorite bookstores. But yes, this jug certainly means business. :)
Cafe Moto:
cafemoto.com
Libelula Books
www.libelulabooksandco.com
Liking coffee is kind of genetic, like cilantro. Some people get the bitterness really strongly and others don’t, and sometimes other people like black coffee because it genuinely tastes different to them than it does to people who don’t and not because they got used to it
Hm....I should see if I like ICED black coffee any better. However, I only have one cup of coffee in the morning, and I'd rather have that be hot.
I envy your ability to drink coffee black!
Heh....I usually DO drink tea. But when I'm home, I enjoy having ONE cup of coffee first thing in the morning....then tea the rest of the day. What kind of tea do you like?
