Wednesday 18 April 2012

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 :)


13 comments:

  1. I hated olives until my father said if I could eat 10 in a row, I would love them. It took a number of tries before I could finally eat 10 in a row. I now love olives! Who knew that would work. Btw, I love coffee with a double cream.

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    1. olives are gross!! i did eat a few once when i was in my first posh italian restaurant and I thought they were ok. Every time ive tried them since i cant stand them. i dont know if i want to try and eat 10 in a row though.. although it does sound like a good idea!

      I love chilled coffees you get in a few supermarkets and newsagents. They're really common in Europe but hard to find over here! Theyre very very creamy tasting too!

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  2. Love coffee, total addict, still hate tea but developed a taste for Olives too!

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  3. Mine is an old tale of spite...
    I was on holiday with just my Nan. I must have been 10 or 11 years old.
    We were in Austria or Germany or some such place with continental breakfast at the hotel.
    Every morning a waiter would come and ask if we wanted tea or coffee, and every morning my Nan would answer Tea, for the both of us.
    One day, I felt that I was sick of her assuming that I wanted tea, so when the waiter came I said "No, I want a coffee" just to look smug and grown up in front of my Nan. I don't think I'd had a coffee before then and certainly didn't know if I even liked it, but I wanted that feeling of independence and "getting one up" over my Nan.
    I still drink alot of coffee and I hate Tea now. I'm glad I made that choice that day, even if it was for silly reasons.
    Here ends my tale.

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  4. I've always liked coffee but since becoming a Dad have drunk much more of it: like you I needed it to get me through the disruption to sleep in the first 6 months or or so - even tho I was at home at the time. I'm fussy about it now: I only drink cafetiere or machine espresso, & preferably with cream. I actually prefer tea to instant coffee. Actually I've seen research that suggests that caffeine can stave off heart disease. But probably in small quantities...

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  5. I can't stand coffee, my husband has been trying to get me to like it for years - although I think I must drink enough tea to get a caffeine fix for a whole village! I do wish I liked coffee though - maybe I'll end up like you :) xx

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    1. start with a caramel latte with 2-3 sugars in! its delicious and you cant taste the coffee. but i guess it gets your taste buds used to the flavours secretly! :) if you do, let me know how you get on

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  6. I loved coffee until I was pregnant. My daughter is now 10 months old and I still can't touch the stuff!

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    1. how funny. my partner couldn't drink caffeine during pregnancy and doesn't really drink it any more either. our boy is 8 months. she used to be such a big tea drinker!

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  7. I love coffee, I need it to function as a passable human being. However Nescafe is vile and has no right to call itself coffee!

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  8. We werent allowed to drink coffee until we were 15. Since then, its been a love/hate relationship. Im extremely sensitive so generally avoid but sometimes....sometimes only coffee will keep me from falling into a coma :) flat white is favourite but happily sat here with cafetiere of Grumpy Mule sumatran...

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