Do you drink coffee?

You had to be "introduced" to coffee? Wasn't it always around throughout your life? Where and how did you grow up that the adults weren't drinking coffee in your presence?

Turkish coffee every day after lunch, yes. An espresso if I'm outside. Absolutely no coffee in the morning, it makes my stomach hurt.

I didn’t drink any coffee until I was 28 yo, only tea. My mother was a coffee-holic maybe that’s why I wasn’t interested in it for so long. One cup a day is plenty for me.

Yes, I drink it every day, not more than two cups usually. I like donut shop or breakfast blend type coffee and I don’t like sugar in coffee but I do use light cream.

Caffeine no longer has any effect on me, unfortunately. If anything, it makes me drowsy now.

I wish I could. I love the smell and the taste of coffee, but unfortunately it gives me terrible heartburn. I drank it until my mid-20s when the heartburn started. I switched to English Breakfast tea for my caffeine lift and have drunk that in the mornings ever since. The same thing happened to my brother at about the same age. Funny because both our parents drank a lot of coffee every single day. I guess we didn't inherit their tolerance for it.

Also had a coffee holic mom and the constant smell has kept me away from coffee for my entire life. Only tea for me

I’m drinking some right now.

Never, not once, no matter how much I drink have I ever had a caffeine boost from coffee. It doesn’t effect me at all and I have no idea what that experience is like that people have from it. I could drink a gallon of coffee and go right to bed and sleep like a baby. The whole decafe thing makes no sense to me.

sounds like a fib to me

I prefer tea and I've just started alternating between regular tea and organic decaf.

If i had a cock at hand to suck I wouldn't drink so much coffee.

I drink a Pepsi Max no sugar in the morning, it's my caffeine and only soft drink, it's higher in caffeine than regular but much lower than a red Bull.

Non-stop coffee and two to three packs of cigarettes each day were my father's specialties. I suppose I never used either out of a subliminal, symbolic avoidance of being like him. And yes, he eventually from lung cancer. I didn't shed a single tear.

Similar deal for me, OP. My parents weren't coffee drinkers so I never developed a taste for it early in life. Didn't start drinking it regularly until my mid-30s when I got a job where we had free Caribou Coffee available. Soon after that my bf (now husband) moved in with me and brought his drip machine. It's now one of my great pleasures in life. We often talk before we go to sleep about how much we're looking forward to the first cup of coffee the next morning.

[quote]It doesn’t effect me at all . . .

We're all agog. But tell us: does it [italic]affect[/italic] you?

I have deep hate for non coffee drinkers.

Our grandmother introduced my brother, sister and me to coffee when we were very young; for me, about 6. It was little more than a cup of warm milk, sugar and a few grains of instant coffee to give it a slight shade of tan. We thought we were so grown up!

50 years later and I still drink my coffee with either steamed milk (my favorite, but a pain in the ass; hello, Starbucks!) or lots of half-and-half, but I can't drink the instant crap so it's either brewed or an Americano. I don't like sweet all that much, but my sister has three packs of the yellow fake sugar in every cup while my brother decided as a teenager that he wanted to drink his coffee like our father, plain, black and nearly flavorless. Like OP's case but in reverse, I introduced coffee to my husband (although his mother drank gallons of coffee per day, even having a cup right before going to bed). He blames me for his caffeine addiction.

My heart doctor suggested I drink but one cup per day of regular coffee, and then switch to decaf, and I have to be honest and say it's been helpful. I miss the jolt that keeps you awake in the afternoon, but I appreciate falling asleep quickly.

There is nothing quite like a cup of good coffee after a meal, or the aroma that wafts through the house with the morning brew.

My parents were both coffee drinkers. When I was a kid, we always had breakfast together before school/work. My mother used to let my sibling and me have a sip from her coffee cup, and we really liked the taste. So we graduated from sips to having full cups of coffee with our parents (just with milk, our parents didn't use sugar, and we liked coffee better without sugar too). So from the age of about 9 or 10 (and yeah, I'm old, so this was back in the '60's), I've been a regular coffee drinker. I use light cream now, or half and half if I must.

I've been through many percolators and drip coffee makers. Now I just have a Keurig and like the donut shop blend these days.

Are you referring to The Sacred Elixir?

Of course!

I didn't start drinking coffee until I was 60 and retired. During my entire working life, at least from the mid-'80s onward, my caffeinated beverage of choice was Diet Coke. (I don't remember what I drank before that -- certainly not Tab, which was awful.)

I was fortunate enough to have a private office and I put a small refrigerator in. I usually had four 12-oz. cans of DC before lunch.

Now my routine is two cups of coffee from the Keurig (usually) and then I limit myself to one can of DC. The rest of the day is just water. (I don't drink beer or wine.)

I still miss Diet Coke with Lime. It was the BEST.

Coffee doesn't smell as good as it did when I was younger. That coffee aroma is gone.

It lacks flavah.

Drink tea. It's more refined. And not the twee English horrors but the Chinese and Japanese marvels.

My grandparents drank instant coffee because they were addicts and instant allowed each of them to control how strong to make every cup individually. Grandpa would add between 3-5 teaspoons of Nescafé per cup. He consumed 2 cups in the morning and 2 in the mid afternoon. Grandma added 3 teaspoons per cup and consumed approx 5 cups throughout the day. They used Nescafé as human starter fluid. Grandma would get uncontrollable anxiety whenever she noticed her Nescafé jar supply running low. She would sometimes have to stop whenever she was doing and go to the grocery store to stock up on jars of Nescafé. That seemed to “instantly” (pun intended) put her at ease.

I keep a little 4-cup drip coffee maker in my bedroom. When my alarm rings, I hit the start button on it and then doze till the coffee has finished brewing. The chuffing sound that the coffeemaker makes at the end of the brew cycle is my second alarm. Having a hot fresh cup of coffee ready and waiting at my bedside gets me up and moving with a cheerful heart.

I used to drink Diet Coke every morning with breakfast until I was 27. Then I discovered I quite liked the taste of coffee

I drink coffee mainly to wake up and be focused.

Once I start realizing it's not doing anything any more, I only drink decaf for about a month. When I go back to caf, the jolt comes back

I can't drink the high energy/high caffeine drinks. I had one once and thought I was going to die. Never again

[quote]You had to be "introduced" to coffee? Wasn't it always around throughout your life? Where and how did you grow up that the adults weren't drinking coffee in your presence?

Actually, my mom drank tea. My dad didn't drink anything in the mornings. I just drank milk.

I was thinking that maybe OP's family was Mormon, since they don't drink coffee (not allowed to have caffeine) -- but they don't drink tea either. So I guess OP's family was just weird.

I hate coffee. I drink tea.

R20: But she didn't need caffeine, she was quite active enough, thank you!

I find Starbucks too bitter and with too much caffeine.

It's nice to have better coffee around than Folgers and such but Starbucks packs too much of a punch

I’ve given myself cool coffee enemas using a turkey baster. It’s really great. Almost immediate caffeine pick me up and cool feeling in my bowels

I cannot even imagine the horror of not being able to at least have a cup of coffee in the morning. I usually have it first thing, right after lunch, and mid afternoon. Just black, no cream or sugar.

At home every morning made in my Faberware percolator which makes rich, HOT coffee. Love it with my trashy Coffee Mate Italian Sweet Creme creamer.

Love coffee. I am always on the search for new companies with awesome dear roast whole beans.

Percolators make the best coffee but they’re a bitch to clean.

I meant dark roasted whole coffee bean

I don’t even like most coffee but literally wouldn’t be able to function if I didn’t start my day without it. But again, I don’t like most (and in the morning it does kind of make me sick)- I wish I could get it shot in the arm.

Oh well, at least it’s not cigarettes .

Growing up, my mom drank coffee all day. Dad was a Lipton Tea drinker. Neither used cream or sugar.

During finals during college, the student union had urns of coffee 24/7. I met up with some friends and drank so much coffee one evening that I had coffee rot gut for days after. That turned me off of it for several years. Then in grad school I hung out at a coffee and tea shop to study and started drinking coffee with cream. Within a couple years, I graduated to greasy, dark roasts with no cream or sugar. Now, thirty years later, I still make a large mug of pour-over in the morning then have a double Americano when I get to my office. That's it, unless I'm at a dinner party and coffee is offered with dessert.

As for caffeine, the most flavorful beans are Arabica, which contain less caffeine than cheaper Robusta beans. Most big name brand canned coffee is Robusta and has a lot of caffeine. The only time I add milk or cream now is when I am served a cup of nasty coffee.

I drink coffee all day long, but never actually make my own. I’ll buy a large with milk / no sugar from the corner deli on my way to the subway every morning. I don’t eat anything until lunch, and I usually have another large with my meal. At 4:30 or 5 I’ll take a break from work and walk to a nearby deli or Dunkin for one more large, and maybe another around 8 or 9 if I’m working late. I prefer deli coffee over Starbucks; there’s a Keurig at work but the coffee isn’t hot enough.

I started drinking coffee in my early 20s. I also smoked a pack a day. I found one of the greatest pleasures in life: the 1st cup of coffee right when you wake up with your first cigarette. The jolt of caffeine and nicotine you get is awesome! Now I just do one cup of coffee in the morning. I don’t smoke anymore. I don’t think I could move my bowels without coffee!

[quote]Percolators make the best coffee but they’re a bitch to clean.

Don't you have people for that?

R43: Where are you moving them to?

Yes, & it’s the highlight of my day. Fresh Cuban coffee with cream, sugar & dark chocolate.

It’s practically a meal replacement.

I like Pete's coffee, which I first tried on a trip to California. Much smoother than Starbucks

The best coffee I ever had was in Peru.

They dumped what looked like a clump of mud in my glass and added hot water. It was AMAZING