Coffee - From hate to love in 12 months

I used to hate coffee.  Now I'm a coffee drinker and proud!!  This is my story...

I was told that as a young child I used to drink coffee.  From what I remember of such a young age (I assume somewhere from the age range of 3-6 years) it must have been Nescafe, as I recall the brand being in the house growing up.  I think these days parents are a little wiser to feeding children caffeine than they used to be 20 odd years ago.

But from as far back as I can remember I have always hated the taste of coffee.  The taste revolted me.  The smell was off-putting.  And the accidental coffee flavoured chocolate induced a repulsive ejection from my mouth.  Over time I have tried old foods I once disliked, such as marmite, mustard, curry, and even sausages.  Many of these things I have tried with my more mature taste buds to find that indeed I do like the food after all.  Looking back I can see that my teenage rebellion against certain food types were unfounded.

But even until a year ago, coffee was still firmly on the hate list.  I had even toyed with the idea and tried a sip of Nescafe every now and then just to make sure.  The taste as horrid as my memory would have me believe.

My view on coffee, pre-2010

I work as an inbound sales adviser for a certain telecommunications providers business division, and so the nature of my job requires me to be a rather happy and enthusiastic personality for 8 hours a day, including the dreaded Monday mornings.  Only a very few (incredibly insane) people I have ever known have a natural chirpiness on a Monday morning.  They clearly have some kind of chemical imbalance that means they do not succumb to the miseries that mornings bring to most of the world.

So to be able to hold down such a job, I require lethal doses of caffeine to wake me up to give me that little buzz that gets me through to lunch time.  From lunch time onwards I am a normal human being, caffeine or no caffeine.  And for the past however many years now, I have relied heavily upon energy drinks such a red bull, relentless and monster.  During my poorer months I have resorted to the cheaper brands.  Either way, I cant function without it.

This may seem dramatic, to assume that without caffeine I cannot be a nice friendly lively person most of the time.  But I have proof!  A few years ago I had a new year health drive.  I decided to eat lots of fruit (in itself is a huge lifestyle change) AND to stop drinking energy drinks and high sugar soft drinks.  I decided to be a true Englishman and drink tea instead.  And just so you are completely aware, tea does not contain much caffeine.  Virtually none.  Its like giving a smack addict a cigarette instead.  No bloody good.  And I stuck to living like this for around 3 months.

The result of this courageous attempt at living healthily was a tremendous drop in my sales at work, and a hugely noticeable dip in my commission.  The money I was saving on not buying sweet beverages every day was in no way counteracting the financial loses.  So here was the proof that I am not a particularly friendly or enthusiastic person before lunch time.  Like no good human should be!

After reverting back to my high sugar high caffeine ways for another year or so, I could literally feel my insides rotting.  I knew I had to get off this stuff!  I dreamt of being a coffee drinker.  So much healthier, so much better for my insider, and still giving me the good stuff.  So I made the decision that I'm going to like it. Failing that, I am going to drink it and not like it.

Attempt one was to try a cup of good old Nescafe.  Nothing much had changed.  This is simply too revolting.

Attempt two was much more sensible.  Drink flavoured latte's from Starbucks and Costa.  Tonnes of milk, tonnes of sugary flavours to mask the awful bitterness of the coffee itself.  And it worked.  I had to add a few extra sachets of sugar, but I could drink it. Perfect.  Gingerbread and caramel lattes were my saviour!

As the weeks and months went on, I slowly reduced the amount of sugar, and tried flavoured syrups which were less overpowering such as vanilla and hazelnut.  

This eventually led to drinking lattes without flavour.  Then moving on to cappuccinos.  And finally on to buying a cafetiere and some ground beans from the shops.  The moment I new I had really achieved my goal was when I had my first black coffee with no sugar.  The flavour was still a little hard to take, but not so bad that I would say I disliked it.  

Now I find myself drinking all kinds of coffee.  Well, all except one.  Nescafe.  In fact any instant coffee I still find rather disgusting.  So now I feel like a coffee snob, only drinking the best.  Tomorrow I have been advised to try a flat white.  I'm excited.

COFFEE FOR MEEEEEEE

Do you like, love or hate coffee?

Have you found your taste buds have changed a lot as an adult?

Have you ever forced your taste buds to change like I did?

Thanks for reading :)