3 Methods to Like Coffee
Coffee is a flavorful drink with a vivid history surrounding it, but it can be an acquired taste. If you've never enjoyed coffee, you may not have found the right brew for you. Experimenting with different roasts, exploring a broader coffee-drinking experience, and joining coffee culture can help you begin to love this beverage. If you can open your mind and try new things, you can learn to appreciate coffee.
The first Method Broadening Your Tastes
1. Taste fresh coffee: Coffee freshness changes the moment the roasting process has completed. Buy coffee from a cafe that brews whole bean coffee, which retains more flavor when ground.
- Local coffee shops are more likely to use whole beans than franchises, so frequent smaller, privately owned cafes.
2. Add milk, cream, and/or sugar: Black coffee has a bitter taste that can be unpleasant for new coffee connoisseurs. Add in a sweetener to your coffee if straight brews disgust you. Experiment with different sweeteners when ordering until you find the perfect balance.
-
If you want to branch out, try gourmet sweeteners like vanilla sugar, muscovado, raw sugar, or chocolate powder.
-
Acidic, light roasts taste best with milk or cream, which dulls its bite while letting its delicate flavor come through.
3. Try lighter roasts: The degree to which coffee is roasted changes its flavor. Dark roasts (when the coffee beans are roasted until blackened) are generally more unpalatable for new coffee lovers. Start with the sweetest drinks (like mochas, cappuccinos, and frappuccinos) and move onto darker roasts as your palate changes.
- Light roasts retain the most caffeine, whereas darker roasts retain the least. If you're sensitive to caffeine, order a smaller cup.
4. Add coffee to your regular morning routine: Making a morning ritual out of coffee drinking can accustom your tastebuds to the flavor. You'll also feel energized and ready to start your day. Try drinking coffee in the morning for a few weeks and see if you begin to enjoy it as a breakfast beverage.
5. Give yourself time: Like many acquired tastes, sometimes coffee takes time to warm up to. If you don't like your first drink, don't give up. All coffee blends taste differently: you may not have found the brew for you.
- If you've tried many different blends and still don't like coffee, you may just not have a taste for it. This is okay! Other beverages like tea, kombucha, and green smoothies can have similar benefits.
The second method is Appreciating Coffee and Coffee Culture
1. Research the benefits of drinking coffee: Discovering health benefits can give you the incentive to drink it. Coffee is loaded with antioxidants that can boost your metabolic rate and keep your liver healthy. Coffee may also have preventative properties, as regular drinkers are less likely to develop type 2 diabetes, heart rhythm problems, and certain kinds of cancers.
- Approach coffee with a balanced view. While coffee has antioxidants and other health benefits, too much coffee can stunt growth and cause fatigue. Like all things, this drink is best enjoyed in moderation.
2. Learn about coffee's history: Research the history of coffee to gain more appreciation for the beverage. For over six hundred years, coffee has changed the world politically, socially, and intellectually. Coffee history is not just a part of foodie culture but the human culture in general. The more you know, the more you'll understand and respect coffee lovers.
3. Befriend the regulars at coffee houses: Spend time in locally owned cafes known by gourmet coffee drinkers as high quality. Coffee connoisseurs often hang around local coffee shops to discuss different coffee blends and chat about other intellectual topics. Chat with the employees and regulars, get to know their personal tastes, and ask for their recommendations. You can enjoy talking with them about coffee and listening to their advice.
- Try local coffee blends. Find coffee shops that roast their beans daily using beans harvested nearby. These will yield the freshest brews, and the coffee shop owners will likely know a lot about the brew's history.
4. Join a coffee club: Coffee clubs are a great way to make friends, enjoy drinks, and discuss coffee with like-minded friends. You will learn a lot about coffee in a short amount of time when with coffee enthusiasts. If no coffee clubs are around in your area, join an online society and frequent coffee lover forums.
- You can also start a coffee club if you want to discuss coffee intellectually but no clubs are in your area. Co-found the club with a more experienced coffee lover, who can help recruit members and guide the discussions.
5. Keep a coffee tasting journal: Similar to a wine journal, a coffee journal can help you remember great blends you enjoyed and where you purchased them. Keep a coffee journal to record different coffees you taste, what flavors they yielded, and any notes you have about the blend. This will help you hone in your tastes and recall particularly delicious brews.
Last but not least: Making Coffee at Home
1. Blend your own coffee: Purchase a coffee maker and learn how to brew your beans at home. Grinding your own beans allows you to use beans and roast levels you know you love. Start with standard coffee makers and, once you've got the hang of brewing coffee, consider purchasing French presses or espresso makers.
- When purchasing coffee beans, make sure that there are no more than ten percent faults in the beans if purchasing a high-quality coffee blend. This will give you the best deal for your money.
2. Experiment with coffee bean roasting levels: When you're brewing coffee at home, switch around with the depth to which you roast your beans. High-quality beans should be roasted lightly so the flavor comes through. For lower-quality beans, a medium roast (also called a "city roast") or a dark roast is best.
-
For breakfast, light roasts are ideal because of their higher caffeine content. Add milk or cream to lower the acidity and make them more palatable.
3. Keep your beans fresh: If you brew coffee at home or with a friend, but the packaging in an airtight container after you have made a cup. Although packaging technology can prolong the coffee's freshness, the grounds begin losing their flavor the moment the package is opened. Place the airtight container in a room temperature environment to preserve its flavor.
4. Use coffee in recipes if you can't stand the taste alone: Even if you don't like coffee as a drink, you might like its taste as a supplementary flavor in a food recipe. That way, you can get nutritional benefits while enjoying its taste.
- Dessert recipes work best with coffee. Coffee cake is especially popular. Try a variety of recipes such as Cinnamon coffee cake, tiramisu, brownie nut cranberry coffee cake, and many others.
