Drinking black coffee

Question

First of all I would like tell you that I 'm not a fan of coffee so I don't have much information about it.I know a bit about coffee that it's good in giving energy. Lol Yesterday, I had a chance to try black coffee at Amazon. After first drop of coffee, I think it was so bitter! So, I would like to know why do people like to have it. In addition to black coffee can give energy but does it has another advantage in term of beauty or something else.

Answer 1

What you have to keep in mind is that what might taste awful to you doesn't necessarily taste bad to someone else. Some people (myself included) really enjoy the bitter tastes and nodes while others, (such as yourself) find the flavors overpowering. In all honesty, I think that the only real answer to your question is that people are different and like different things. There ain't much else too it.

Answer 2

Coffee is sometimes said to be an acquired taste. I was introduced to it by adding cream and sugar and told to imagine eating a coffee-flavored candy. Another favorite is coffee-flavored ice cream. Over time, I gained an appreciation for getting the right balance of coffee/sugar/cream. Now I drink a dark-roasted fresh-grind coffee using a pour-over brewing method. Eventually you discover incomparable aromas and flavors in different coffee bean sources. Additionally, I add a hint of vanilla and chocolate. Of course, you can try removing all additives and go to completely black. It depends on your flavor palette. Explore and experiment!

Edit: several benefits of drinking coffee are outlined here

Answer 3

Being a black coffee lover I strongly feel that the fact on whether or not you're going to like it has to 100% with the type of beans and grind your using.

Can I ask what type of coffee you're referencing in your question? The orgin, roast and grind you used? Or perhaps it was already ground...

Because there's no fooling with black coffee, meaning you can't mask any bitterness with cream and sugar the best way to get that good cup is with a strong, clean dark roast coffee bean. By clean I mean 100% coffee with no fillers added. Often companies add fillers such as wheat, soybean, brown sugar, rye, barley, acai seeds, corn, twigs and even dirt. The demand for coffee is high and so companies sometimes resort to any means necessary to hit their bottom line.

Don't freak out though, there are plenty of coffee producers who make "clean"coffee.

I've had a ton of different coffees but I've come to prefer Vietnamese Coffee. It just has that strong kick that I love (and need).

The grind is important too because too fine a grind can cause an over-extraction issue leaving you with a "burnt ashtray" taste. A coarser grind is your best bet.

Answer 4

First of all I strongly agree with the statements that what doesn't taste good to you may be delicious to other people. Secondly as an enthusiastic coffee drinker and also as someone working with coffee, I find the amount of bad coffee around just astonishing.

The flavor of the coffee you have in your cup is determined by a wide range of variables, beginning with the species of coffee (arabica vs. robusta), the origin of the bean, the processing after harvest, the roast and finally everything that has to do with the preparation of your cup o' Jo like the grind and extraction time. Bitterness in coffee has two main reasons and is in fact not a desired yet very common flavor. The first reason is due to the roasting process where the chemical compounds in the coffee are broken down and can create a bitter and unpleasant taste. Here you'll find some chemical background info on bitterness in coffee. This is typical for very dark over-roasted coffee. Dark roasts tend to lose some of the flavor that is typical to the bean you are using and instead introduces exogenous flavors through the process of roasting itself (through Maillard reactions). Check this source for some info and nice illustration of the relationship between roasting and flavor.

However the arguably more important factor, assuming you are using a light to medium roast which is typical for most speciality coffee is the time of extraction. With extraction I mean roughly the duration in which the water is in contact with your coffee grounds (in reality it is more complex). Depending on the type of preparation this may take between 20-30s for espresso shots, up to several minutes for pour-overs (2-3min for Hario V60, around 4min for Chemed) and even many hours for a cold brewed coffee. If the contact time between water and grounds is too long you will over extract your coffee which results in the bitterness you didn't like. On the other side, underextraction results in sourness. A well extracted coffee should be sweet, fruity, have some acidity and very little bitterness. Most of the coffee you get in coffee shops is over-extracted in my experience.

So it may be that the bitterness you are describing is in fact just due to a bad coffee you had. I suggest you try some good coffee and you might just like it. Or maybe you won't which is also fine. Most people I know who drink coffee do it for the caffein and the kick they get out of it in the morning (I'd rather have some green or black tea if that's the only purpose). I personally drink coffee because I love the great variety and complexity of flavors. A well sourced and well prepared cup of coffee can be something really beautiful to use your words. It starts with the farmers though who spend a lot of effort in cultivating the best possible cherries, or with the roasters who only use the best grade beans and it ends with the barista who knows what's behind the coffee they prepare and how best to do so. I can not stand the very dark, over extracted coffee that you seem to describe. It is bitter, ashy, hollow and it actually just baffles me that people still drink it.