Coffee Wars- Who has the best coffee

[roadman65]

Whether you are waking up, whether its mid morning, maybe 3 O Clock in the PM, or for Dinner, many of us are coffee holics as many of us consider it a worthwhile addiction.  Some of us may stop at one, or have one in certain places.  Name your favorite coffee brand or place that distributes one of America's pastimes next to Hot Dogs and Baseball.

Mine is a toss up between Panera Bread's Hazelnut and all of WaWa's blends.

What is yours?

[cjk374]

I prefer Folgers Classic Roast in the comfort of my own home.  If I have to get coffee out, McDonalds has very good coffee, Waffle House is 2nd place, Huddle House is 3rd.  I really don't like coffee houses, but if I am invited by friends, I like a large caramel frappe.   

[hbelkins]

I never acquired a taste for coffee. Thus I feel discriminated against when I spend the night somewhere. Hotel rooms give you free coffee, but not free soft drinks.

[cjk374]

You haven't missed a thing with that free motel room coffee.  It royally sucks!  It tastes like what I can imagine filtering coffee through sweaty gym socks would be like.      

[Alps]

I never acquired a taste for coffee. Thus I feel discriminated against when I spend the night somewhere. Hotel rooms give you free coffee, but not free soft drinks.

The cheaper motels give you free fake OJ and apple juice in the mornings, at least.

[J N Winkler]

I am a coffee lover, but I stick with 100% arabica coffees since I drink coffee partly for the taste and have mild caffeine sensitivity.  Thus, I generally don't drink branded coffees (Folger's, Cain's, etc.) because they are typically blends of arabica and robusta beans, so they make up in caffeine strength what they sacrifice in taste; both sides of the bargain work to my disadvantage.

I also steer clear of artificially flavored coffees.  Coffee has a great natural flavor!  Why "improve" it by adding vanilla or hazelnut flavorings which come straight from a chemical plant?

I tend to choose a 100% arabica coffee on the basis of ethnicity of the coffee bean.  I am quite partial to the flavors of Ethiopian coffees (Sidamo or Yirgacheffe), but in this country they are quite hard to find outside specialty coffee or spice shops.  I often wind up drinking Colombian coffee simply because it is what I can find on the shelf at the supermarket (After Hours is my default brand simply because it is what the supermarket stocks).  I won't touch any coffee that comes from the East Indies because even the arabica beans are too strongly caffeinated.  Guatemalan and Costa Rican coffees are so similar to Colombian in flavor that I have difficulty telling the difference, and while Kenyan coffee has a pleasant flavor and relatively weak caffeination, it really doesn't compete with the Ethiopian coffees on taste.

I drink my coffee daily in a single dose which I prepare every morning immediately after waking, using a Bialetti moka pot (stovetop espresso maker).  I take it with a small amount of 1% milk, no sugar.  I chase it with a small glass of orange juice, a trick I learned in Madrid for getting rid of coffee breath.

If I drink coffee again in the same day, it is usually decaffeinated coffee at a dinner party.  I disagree with the "all-day caffeine drip" theory of coffee consumption; I believe it interferes with sleep, even in people who claim minimal caffeine sensitivity, and in my case too much coffee (even decaffeinated) causes catarrh.  If I need something to pick me up in the middle of the day, I drink tea instead, and try to schedule it so that I finish the cup no less than eight hours before bedtime.  (I think the best way to avoid midafternoon drowsiness is just to eat low-GI foods for lunch.)

[corco]

I disagree with the "all-day caffeine drip" theory of coffee consumption; I believe it interferes with sleep, even in people who claim minimal caffeine sensitivity, and in my case too much coffee (even decaffeinated) causes catarrh.

I worked overnights 3-4 nights a week the entire time I lived in Arizona, and the trick to pulling that shift was to not drink any caffeine. It was always hilarious when there'd be a new hire or somebody filling in and they'd pound energy drinks or coffee and would stay awake OK the first night, but by 2 AM at night number two, they couldn't stay awake because the caffeine high kept them up most of the morning, and then the combination of coming off an insane caffeine high and just feeling terrible from being up all night prevented them from being able to fall asleep. By night number three they'd start doing what the rest of us do, and that's just drink plenty of water and maybe a can maximum of soft drink.

Back on subject, I pretty much don't drink coffee. I'll drink Folgers Instant with a little sugar every once in a while, but that's it. I don't dislike coffee- I'll drink lattes or whatever if I'm around a bunch of other people doing the same, but it's just something I never got into and just assume avoid the expense.

[Brandon]

I never acquired a taste for coffee. Thus I feel discriminated against when I spend the night somewhere. Hotel rooms give you free coffee, but not free soft drinks.

The cheaper motels give you free fake OJ and apple juice in the mornings, at least.

I'm not a fan of coffee either.  It smells good, but tastes like blah. 

Their OJ-flavored drink (I refuse to call that shit orange juice) is some of the most disgusting stuff I've had.  Give me a milk instead.  Why can't these places stock decent orange juice, like a Florida's Natural?  I'll pay more for it if they just have it instead of that shit from Brazilian concentrate. 

[bugo]

The only coffee drink I like is Frappuccino by Starbucks in the glass bottles.  The mocha flavor is my favorite.  I can't drink them though because of the milk and because they have too much caffeine in them.

My weakness is Coca Cola.  I drink anywhere from 8-12 12 ounce cans of them a day.  I'm used to the amount of caffeine that is in Coke, and I usually drink one right before I go to bed so that amount of caffeine doesn't affect me much.  I do like to drink one when I wake up in the morning, and I'm grumpy if I don't get one early.

[bugo]

I never acquired a taste for coffee. Thus I feel discriminated against when I spend the night somewhere. Hotel rooms give you free coffee, but not free soft drinks.

The cheaper motels give you free fake OJ and apple juice in the mornings, at least.

You get free OJ at the welcome centers in Florida, or at least you did back in 1998.

[Takumi]

The only coffee drink I like is Frappuccino by Starbucks in the glass bottles.  The mocha flavor is my favorite.  I can't drink them though because of the milk and because they have too much caffeine in them.

I like their Doubleshot energy drinks in the cans, the white chocolate being my favorite. I only drink them when I'm opening at work and was up late the night before (so pretty much any opening shift ). I find regular Starbucks coffee too bitter for my taste, however, so I've only ever been to one once, and that was to buy a phone.

When I worked at 7-Eleven years ago, we got unlimited free coffee, so I tried a lot of it. The vanilla was my favorite, but nowadays I rarely drink hot coffee at all.

[Duke87]

I can't stand the taste of coffee. Never touch it.

[on_wisconsin]

I usually drink Alterra or Victor Allen's, Maxwell House in a pinch, but never Folgers. McDonalds and Kwik Trip are my go to for coffee when traveling.

[US81]

I worked overnights 3-4 nights a week the entire time I lived in Arizona, and the trick to pulling that shift was to not drink any caffeine. It was always hilarious when there'd be a new hire or somebody filling in and they'd pound energy drinks or coffee and would stay awake OK the first night, but by 2 AM at night number two, they couldn't stay awake because the caffeine high kept them up most of the morning, and then the combination of coming off an insane caffeine high and just feeling terrible from being up all night prevented them from being able to fall asleep. By night number three they'd start doing what the rest of us do, and that's just drink plenty of water and maybe a can maximum of soft drink.

Respectfully disagree..  Daytime sleep is just not restful, and lots of us need caffeine to get thru the night.  The tricks are the amount and timing of caffeine.  I often need it to "get my shift started" and may or may not need a kicker around midnight. Never after 3am IF I'm coming back the next night and therefore must sleep during the day. Always starting by 5am if I'm going to need to stay awake all day.  (Very hard to "live your life" on pure night shift hours when families and businesses (banks, doctors, schools etc) are only functional during the day.)

Have seen lots of folks overdo it the way you describe, too.  Caffeine OD is not the only cause in every case of failure to daytime sleep, tho. Lots of people have to learn about blackout curtains, earplugs, a loud box fan or other white sound, sleep mask, melatonin, sometimes (legal, prescribed) drugs....

[bugo]

I drink Coke all day.  The first thing I do when I wake up is to grab a Coke and I usually am drinking one right before I go to bed.  I chain drink them all day.  I have Ambien to help me sleep and I usually don't have any problems going to sleep.

[AsphaltPlanet]

There is a coffee shop on almost every street corner in Southern Ontario. Lately my preference has been McDonalds, but Tim Horrons is also a staple.

[Brandon]

There is a coffee shop on almost every street corner in Southern Ontario. Lately my preference has been McDonalds, but Tim Horrons is also a staple.

Isn't Tim's on almost every flipping street corner in southern Ontario? 
/sarc

[Ian]

Wawa

[J N Winkler]

I drink Coke all day.  The first thing I do when I wake up is to grab a Coke and I usually am drinking one right before I go to bed.  I chain drink them all day.  I have Ambien to help me sleep and I usually don't have any problems going to sleep.

Don't you think that if you cut back on the Coke drinking, say by concentrating it in the morning and not having any within eight hours of bedtime, you would be able to get to sleep without Ambien?

I have used melatonin as a sleep aid but have discovered that time-release melatonin is a recipe for daytime drowsiness.  I have had good luck with 3-mg and 5-mg one-shot melatonin tablets, but even those tend to leave me with morning drowsiness, so I try to avoid taking melatonin at all except to manage jet lag on overseas flights.

I have never worked night shifts, but I have lived in and travelled in regions where the night is very short in the summer.  In Anchorage, for example, it never really gets pitch-black dark in July even though the latitude is several hundred miles south of the Arctic Circle.  The lesson I have learned in these places is that it takes very little ambient light to destroy your ability to sleep.  Even false dawn behind thick dark curtains is too much.  I do sleep with a nightlight, but it is a very weak two-watt Indiglo panel, so there is no specular light source for my eyes to focus on.

If I were working honest-to-God night shifts, I would take lessons from Vegas strippers:  fitted plywood boards over windows with black tape frames to plug light leaks.

[agentsteel53]

this place has the best coffee in the entire space-time continuum.  well, close to my house anyway.

http://www.kaffeemeister.com/

[kphoger]

I prefer tea.  But I'll drink coffee if you put so much other crap in it that it no longer tastes like coffee.  IMO, Starbucks is pretty good in that respect.

For getting your caffeine fix (or jitters), just munch on a coffee bean or two.  Depending on your caffeine tolerance, you might want to sip a Mountain Dew along with it.

[hbelkins]

I cannot perceive any effect that caffeine has on me. It doesn't make me feel more awake and it doesn't keep me from sleeping.

It does, however, cause me heartburn if consumed in the evening before bedtime. I've recently switched to Caffeine Free Diet Coke in the evening and I've noticed a significant decrease in nighttime heartburn, but no change in my sleep habits.

[kphoger]

It makes me poo.
But pooing is.....well.....

Caffeinated soda and tea don't affect my alertness or sleep patterns in any discernible way.  But coffee on an empty stomach makes me jittery.  And poo.

I did buy some mate last time I bought tea, and made my first pot the other day.  I drank the whole pot before I realized mate has more caffeine than tea.  I had to push going to bed back by about an hour.

My dad says a cup of coffee at night actually helps him sleep.

[InterstateNG]

I cannot perceive any effect that caffeine has on me. It doesn't make me feel more awake and it doesn't keep me from sleeping.

I get a headache if I don't get some caffeine, but I don't perceive any difference in alertness.  Caffeine + aspirin is my hangover cure.

People that normally "don't like the taste of coffee" are usually subject to shitty beans, and quite frankly, any style of drip coffee is pretty wretched.  Too weak for my tastes, but I'm someone who has two shots of espresso a morning.  Also have some green tea during the morning, but that's more a dietary supplement at the moment.

[J N Winkler]

Caffeinated soda and tea don't affect my alertness or sleep patterns in any discernible way.

I have heard people say this.  Then they turn around and say they can sleep only six hours a night, and stagger around half-asleep except when they have just had a cup of coffee as a pick-me-up.  When it is suggested to them that the coffee might be degrading their sleep (as it tends to do even when it does not prevent sleep altogether), they then refuse to countenance an experiment to determine whether this might be the case, e.g. by drinking coffee only in the morning and drinking water instead during the rest of the day.

I accept that there are people with very low caffeine sensitivity, but I have long suspected that they are far outnumbered by people who drink coffee (or other caffeinated beverages) all day, have problems sleeping, and are in denial about the possibility of any link between the two.