# Remembering your first time



## Java Jive (Sep 21, 2013)

Just wondering how you all got into coffee and what was your first experience that ignited your enthusiasm.

For me, my eyes were opened when I had some half-decent M&S Kenyan ground that was brewed in a cafetiere. It was a sweet, sweet coffee that tasted just like treacle toffee. It was so different from the usual throat-rasping bitterness, ash-tray flavoured or brown blandness of typical English coffee that I'd sampled before. Until then I assumed people drank coffee for the caffeine hit not for the taste.

So what was your very first OMG! experience that sparked the obsession? Where was it, what was it, and what did it taste like?


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## Nimble Motionists (Oct 22, 2012)

First wow moment was Hasbean Finca La Illusion from El Salvador in a filter machine. First time using non-supermarket beans. I never knew coffee could taste so sweet, be so refreshing or have such well defined tasting notes whilst still tasting like coffee.


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## spinningwoman (Sep 25, 2013)

It was the equipment that hooked me - found an old Krups espresso machine in a charity shop and took it home on my bike. Up until then I hardly ever drank coffee. I started reading coffee forums to find out how to operate it and realised that I had never really tasted good coffee before.


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## coffeechap (Apr 5, 2012)

The odd thing is I have had loads of equipment and have thoroughly enjoyed my coffee journey from those first steps on my gaggia classic mdf combo 14 years ago to the current lineup that i use now, but the most amazing moment for me was watching and hearing my first pour from the Bosco, nothing feels like the connection you get when using an amazing lever machine, the way that coffee becomes a sensory indulgence, the Bosco pour, pure magic......


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## Wobin19 (Mar 19, 2013)

On holiday in the South of France, my wife and I visited a tiny back street cafe somewhere in or near Antibes. The espresso was tiny and and came with a biscotti and a glass of iced water. It was sweet, intense and just incredible, I just had to have another. I remember still being able to taste it an hour later. It was nothing like what I had been conditioned to think was normal espresso from the usual suspects back home and that's when I decided to had to embark on my own coffee making journey.


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## 4515 (Jan 30, 2013)

Mine was in a local restarant. At the time I wasnt drinking much coffee and was having one or two cups of powdered decaff / week (I know, I know !).

We finished the meal and I ordered an espresso (mainly to keep Mrs WD company while she ate desert). It was smooth, intense and sweet with flavours that lingered in the mouth for hours. This was the first espresso I'd had that I can truly say that I enjoyed. Turns out they use blue mountain coffee but not sure what machine they use.

From there I bought my first setup and upgraded that within 6 weeks of purchase. I know that I'll be upgrading again when the time is right.

Ironically, I returned to the restaurant and was served about 4oz of boiling hot black stuff with no crema as espresso. Needless to say, it went back.


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## xiuxiuejar (Jan 24, 2012)

I've always loved coffee since I can remember. Coming from a Greek family, I have always loved strong, full tasting, full bodied coffees. My grandmother used to grind the coffee in her little hand grinder when I was a child and I'd drink the sweet, cooked kypriakós kafés (Cypriot/Greek coffee - for political reasons, not called Turkish coffee any more) made in the Briki. I still love a nice Greek coffee! I also discovered the wonders of the filter and french press at a relatively young age, my parents allowing me to fuel my love for coffee. My passion for espresso took hold with my post university travel. I can't imagine a day without coffee and I hate going on holiday because of the uncertainty ... or maybe because of the certainty that I will not find an acceptable brew!


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## The Systemic Kid (Nov 23, 2012)

Decades ago, followed the smell of roasting coffee and stumbled into Atkinson's in Lancaster - felt like stepping back 100 years. Came away with a pack of ground Kenyan Peaberry - went home and made a Cafetiere. Couldn't believe the difference in aromas and taste.


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## 4085 (Nov 23, 2012)

I am ashamed to say, mine started with a drive to Torquay from Newcastle. I was tired and sent my son into a motorway shop to get me a coffee to go. He came back with 2 milky bean to cup type things you prepared yourself. I found myself stopping several more times. When I got hoome, I asked a supplier who owed me a favour to buy me a reconditioned gaggia from them directly on the recommendation of a friend who I thought knew what he was on about. I paired it to a Dualit grinder after a journey with a couple of tins of Illy and no knowledge at all.

I am the sort of person though who has to understand how things tick, and within a couple of years the gaggia went for a heavenly and upgrades became the norm!


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## spinningwoman (Sep 25, 2013)

My first actual eye-opening coffee was a Monsoon Malabar from the Algerian Coffee Roasters in Soho. Up until then I had been using supermarket and Whittards beans.


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## Spukey (Nov 4, 2012)

It was Costa for me, i used to enjoy their coffee and started buying them every day. I then decided i should own my own a machine and save some cash. Then i tasted my first proper coffee in Laynes Espresso after researching machines on here...........never looked back since. If only i knew how much money good coffee would cost, glad i have gone on the journey though as i was missing out on so many beautiful tastes and a community to boot.

Now i cannot stand costa but luckily i have good enough equipment at home not to need anyone else.


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## Mrboots2u (May 10, 2013)

Spukey said:


> It was Costa for me, i used to enjoy their coffee and started buying them every day. I then decided i should own my own a machine and save some cash. Then i tasted my first proper coffee in Laynes Espresso after researching machines on here...........never looked back since. If only i knew how much money good coffee would cost, glad i have gone on the journey though as i was missing out on so many beautiful tastes and a community to boot.
> 
> Now i cannot stand costa but luckily i have good enough equipment at home not to need anyone else.


Mmmm laynes coffee and cake !


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## origmarm (Mar 7, 2012)

A small cafe in Luxembourg (where I'm from originally) when I was a teen. Delta coffee and an old Lever machine, some kind of Elektra I think, I remember the Eagle and a lot of brass on the wall. A small Portuguese lady using a fair bit of her strength to operate it. Came pulled short with a Pastel de Nata (custard tart). Remember loving it to my surprise and feeling very grown up despite not getting the brandy with it







.


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## origmarm (Mar 7, 2012)

As an aside I remember the first time I saw instant. I came to the UK as a student. I remember thinking wow that's great progress, just add water! Disappointed is the word for it.


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## garydyke1 (Mar 9, 2011)

My fondest memories were from my grandparents house , I was probably 6 or 7 at the time. It was the smell of the coffee percolator being used on a saturday afternoon & the biscuit tin being passed round. I never drank any, it was just that smell and the sense of occasion, all the family being together.


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## The Systemic Kid (Nov 23, 2012)

origmarm said:


> As an aside I remember the first time I saw instant. I came to the UK as a student. I remember thinking wow that's great progress, just as water! Disappointed is the word for it.


Recall, as a child, a friend's parents drinking something called camp coffee - it looked and smelled awful. See Tesco still sell it! Constituents are: sugar, water, chicory (24%) and coffee (4%). And people still buy it???


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## Mrboots2u (May 10, 2013)

The Systemic Kid said:


> Recall, as a child, a friend's parents drinking something called camp coffee - it looked and smelled awful. See Tesco still sell it! Constituents are: sugar, water, chicory (24%) and coffee (4%). And people still buy it???


urge to make joke about camp coffee too strong, can't resist ,must resist , am not frank Carson ....


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## urbanbumpkin (Jan 30, 2013)

I think my earliest memory of Coffee was my Mum buying giant metal tins of Nescafe that had to be opened with a spoon and also the smell of roasted coffee in a local Deli when I was a kid. The good old 1970's!

Fast forward a few summers....I was getting quite good results when I started using my Gaggia (or so I thought) the shots weren't bitter or sweet but quite neutral. It wasn't until I started weighing the output with the 1.6 brew ratio that the lightning bolt moment happened a whole different league was opened up to me.

I'd always be sceptical of weighing output but I have to say is works for me.


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## origmarm (Mar 7, 2012)

The Systemic Kid said:


> Recall, as a child, a friend's parents drinking something called camp coffee - it looked and smelled awful. See Tesco still sell it! Constituents are: sugar, water, chicory (24%) and coffee (4%). And people still buy it???


That sounds pretty much evil in every way. 4% coffee! Was it just a cheaper substitute or something or is there some 'home on the range' history attached to it you think?


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## The Systemic Kid (Nov 23, 2012)

origmarm said:


> ...... or is there some 'home on the range' history attached to it you think?


Think more Blazing Saddles - the camp fire scene (ha, ha, ha) rather than Gene Autry!


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## bronc (Dec 10, 2012)

My first time was a few months after I had bought a Dolce Gusto capsules machine. Back then I thought that this was crème de la crème. One Saturday morning I was watching TV and caught a cooking tv show which was featuring a guy who I later found out is one of the only two specialty coffee roasters in Bulgaria. I got pretty hyped about it and found him on Facebook to ask him a few things. He was very nice and asked me for my phone number so that he could call me to explain to me some of the "pillars" of specialty coffee and proper coffee brewing in general. Very nice guy, indeed. Anyhow, he also told me that he is supplying a small coffee shop back in my hometown but it still hadn't opened. A few months later I was back in my hometown so I went to the place. It was still a work in progress but the owner was very nice to me and invited me to try an espresso on the house. Well, that was my first time..









From then on everything happened quite fast - I started with a french press and a Tiamo Mini burr grinder, got a Classic from eBay advertised for spares and repaired it on my own. That was actually very helpful for me as I got to know how espresso machines operate. After a few weeks of struggling with the Tiamo I purchased an Iberital MC2 from a fellow member of the forum. Two or three weeks later I stumbled upon a Mazzer SJ advertised in a local gumtree-like website and it was a no-brainer for the equivalent of 100GBP. It needed new burrs and quite a lot of cleaning but is functioning perfectly. Two weeks later my semester finished so I had to go back home leaving my coffee equipment at the flat where I live while I'm at university. I managed the summer with an Aeropress and a Hario Slim but I truly missed my espresso setup. I came back at the beginning of September prepared to install a PID on my Gaggia and a week after that I found a Silvia for sale so I couldn't resist the temptation. Now.. I am enjoying my Sig Blend from Rave on my Silvia and SJ but not for long I hope!


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## ronsil (Mar 8, 2012)

Camp Coffee is great for flavouring coffee butter cream, ice-cream & even fresh cream. Very pronounced coffee flavour but terrible as a drink.

In general use pre instant ??????.


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## garydyke1 (Mar 9, 2011)

ronsil said:


> *Camp Coffee is great for flavouring coffee butter cream, ice-cream & even fresh cream*. Very pronounced coffee flavour but terrible as a drink.
> 
> In general use pre instant ??????.


I find real coffee to also be good for these purposes : )


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## MarkyP (Jan 10, 2013)

For me, it was in the local supermarket to my brother in California - they have a Starbucks franchise within the shop and cup holders on all of the trolleys would you believe!

After visiting him we bought ourselves a Gaggia Baby Class as a Christmas present and when that went "phut!" I found this place in trying to source a replacement...


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## dabac (Oct 2, 2013)

Hi all, new to the forums, although I've been lurking for some time...

I tried the "amazing" coffee for the first time in one of the bars serving Coffee Collective during my visit to Copenhagen a few years ago.

Didn't bother back then trying to figure out why their coffee tasted *so* much better than espresso in the "normal" bar, until at the beginning of this year I (accidentally) came across Kaffa Roastery in Helsinki (also during my vacation; I love Scandinavia). The feeling of out-of-this-world coffee was there once again, and I bought a couple of bags of their house blends and asked them to grind it for me. However, couldn't figure out why I was unable to reproduce the results on my shitty 60€ Delonghi at home. Then I started reading and watching whatever I could find on coffee, came across specialized coffee forums such as this one and coffeegeek, and before too long I found myself with a brand new Rocky+Silvia.

This is where my journey began; now - about half a year and many texts, videos and forum posts later - I can say I'm able to get some very nice shots at home (I'm residing in Italy, but am ordering my coffee from British microroasters, such as HB and SM), although there's still plenty to learn in the future.

Bad coffee - nevermore


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## spinningwoman (Sep 25, 2013)

The Systemic Kid said:


> Recall, as a child, a friend's parents drinking something called camp coffee - it looked and smelled awful. See Tesco still sell it! Constituents are: sugar, water, chicory (24%) and coffee (4%). And people still buy it???


Camp coffee milkshake/iced coffee - mmmm memories of childhood. I don't remember ever having it as a hot drink.


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## The Systemic Kid (Nov 23, 2012)

spinningwoman said:


> Camp coffee milkshake/iced coffee - mmmm memories of childhood. I don't remember ever having it as a hot drink.


At this rate, we'll have to start a camp coffee nostalgia/appreciation society!!


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## Geordie Boy (Nov 26, 2012)

Previously I'd bought one of those cheap and nasty espresso machines that Argos had years ago that worked on a pressurised boiler principle (needless to say it made coffee taste burnt and I never used it). Then I got into Starbucks and drunk that for a few years until a friend recommended a Gaggia Classic and Illy pre-ground (initially bought as it would save me money in the long term instead of 3 Starbucks a week - I never thought it would surpass Starbucks).

I had a cheap source for Illy, however when that stopped, I needed to look for some other coffee to use as no other supermarket coffee had worked and the supermarket price for Illy was too high, and that got me to this forum and the recommendation of fresh beans. One MC2 later and the purchase of a Has Bean espresso pack, then the rest, as they say, is history.


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## 4515 (Jan 30, 2013)

The Systemic Kid said:


> At this rate, we'll have to start a camp coffee nostalgia/appreciation society!!


My memories of this are not great.  Remember drinking this at the neighbours as a 10 - 12 year old. They say time is kind to memories but not in the case of camp. Tasted awful ! and we were probably drinking supermarket coffee or Birds at home so it wasnt a case of comparing to great coffee

So, for those reasons, if a camp appreciation society is started ..... I'm out


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## ronsil (Mar 8, 2012)

garydyke1 said:


> I find real coffee to also be good for these purposes : )


Of course 'real coffee' is good but Camp provides an excellent substitute for baking in our house if I'm not about to make ristrettos for the purpose.


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## urbanbumpkin (Jan 30, 2013)

The name "Camp Coffee" always makes me snigger along with "Camp David"


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## origmarm (Mar 7, 2012)

The Systemic Kid said:


> At this rate, we'll have to start a camp coffee nostalgia/appreciation society!!


That is a sentence very subject to comma placement


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## Java Jive (Sep 21, 2013)

Guys, these are great stories, thanks! Guess it's not that surprising that quite a few of you had your first really great coffee abroad. Interesting that some of you invested in espresso machines, then had your first great coffee. I've yet to try an espresso having been dissuaded years ago by bigger coffee drinkers than me that they're very strong, bitter and really quite unpleasant unless you added a ton of sugar.

About Camp coffee, I remember that too. Mum used it as a flavouring in baking but never to make coffee to drink. She used as a concentrated essence for things like the butter icing in coffee and walnut cakes. I think there was an old bottle of it when we cleared out her kitchen a few years ago.


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## spune (Oct 3, 2011)

My interest in coffee preparation started when I was pretty young - I used to love watching my Mum and Dad set up the French press, and ask to be allowed to prepare cups for my grandparents when they used to stay. I would then help out with using one of those Russell Hobbs style 'espresso' machines then are still around, preparing my Mum and Dad drinks when I could!

After that, say around 12, I started to enjoy drinking coffee myself, and would brew and foam milk on that particular machine.

Through up until the age of 16 I remained on this machine, making syrup based bits n bobs too.

My coffee 'ephiphany' came when my Dad, brother and I went out to Brighton for a daytrip and stumbled into Red Roaster. I ordered a double espresso and was blown away by the complexity and richness that a simple looking drink can provide! I was so taken back by it, I think I chatted about it for most of the day afterwards! I was so used to the basic, what suddenly appeared bland, stale tasting stuff I could brew at home and was enthused to experience more and more of this black nectar!


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## glevum (Apr 4, 2013)

Staying with An American family in the early 90's got me started into fresh coffee. They could not understand why us Brit's drink leaves in cups and eat steak with kidney in pies. Then meeting my wife in 1995 whose Italian parents introduced me to a Moka pot which then lead me to buying my 1st espresso machine which i still have now, the Bugatti Diva in Chrome. I saw it in Whittards window and just had to give it a go, after 3 years i upgraded to the Silvia which i had for 4 years and now an E61. When we have guests they bypass the E61 and are drawn to the Diva and want me to make a brew on that, typical!


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## Daren (Jan 16, 2012)

For me - Rome 2005. Determined to have the authentic Italian experience my wife and I took the advice of our hotel receptionist and ate Pizza from a scruffy looking back street pizzeria - it was fantastic, had a similar encounter with pasta and gelato. Then tried a little corner espresso bar - one shot (at 50 Euros) and I was hooked. It was nectar.

On my return home I visited the Krupp's shop at Cardiff outlet village and bought a cheap crappy machine and blade grinder to try and replicate my Italian experience. In many ways it did! It lasted until Jan 2012 with weekend shots before it died. On to my Silvia and Rocky and up a league!

I went on a cruise last year and visited Rome, Milan, Venice and Sicily - tasting my way round each city with Espressos. My palate has changed as I couldn't find a decent shot anywhere - my Silvia had spoilt me from ever drinking out again. I've really ruined it now though having upgraded to a Rocket and SJ.... I don't ever want to leave the house.


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## glevum (Apr 4, 2013)

Hi Daren. I have been to all 3 cities and Palermo in Sicily, which did you think had the best cafes & served the best coffee?


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## Daren (Jan 16, 2012)

For me Rome was best - but didn't live up to my memory's of the first visit. Sicily was worst - 3 different shops.... all dire. They seemed so dirty in their preparation and delivery. I'm sure I went to the wrong places - all in the tourist areas. I had no local for advice.

How about you Glevum?


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## Sharkie (Apr 29, 2013)

A couple of years ago my brother in law gave me a gaggia baby class and I could not for the life of me understand why anyone would want to part with several hundred pounds for a machine that produced something that to me tasted no better than a cup of instant, then just over a year ago I stopped by a little coffee shop and what I was served blew my mind.

The flavours and textures were like nothing I had ever tasted.

I asked the owner what coffee he was using and ended up buying a couple of bags from him, it was Has Bean jailbreak.

Try as I might I could not replicate anywhere near the same results he was producing and it was at this point I realised it was not so much the coffee he was using but how he was using the equipment that made the difference.

So began my quest to learn as much as I could about coffee, eventually coming across this forum and the huge wealth of knowledge shared by its members.

It has been a huge learning curve and I am slowly beginning to master the art of coffee alchemy but realise I still have a long way to go.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk - now Free


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## outcast (Sep 4, 2013)

The First cup that really blew me away and changed my view of coffee was a goodly number of years ago in Amsterdam, and No it wasn't one of those coffee shops. It was December and perishing, about -5 or 6 and we ducked into this little cafe as much to get out of the cold for a bit. well I ordered a black coffee, expecting to get filter and ended up with an espresso.. end of story, it was delicious and Ive never looked back. seemed like most of the cafes I visited over there served really good coffee. Barring a few exceptional cups Ive had in restaurants or cafes over the years those ones are the ones that really stand out in my memory. Now I'm seriously trying to get to the point where I can produce something on par with those memories at home, I recon Ive got a pretty steep climb ahead.


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## garydyke1 (Mar 9, 2011)

outcast said:


> The First cup that really blew me away and changed my view of coffee was a goodly number of years ago in Amsterdam, and No it wasn't one of those coffee shops.


How dissapointing ; )


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## Jackm (Feb 4, 2013)

Reading the posts in this thread I reckon I am a bit older than most of you. I can remember when the working classes drunk strong tea and nothing else. Coffee was out for two reasons - a) It was horrendously expensive and b) It was considered "foreign muck"! If PG Tips had got us through WW2 surely we owed it a debt of loyalty?

This is where Camp coffee comes in - foul tasting but dirt cheap - basically the forerunner of instant, but not as palatable.

In the early '60s I worked in a Lyons teashop where the height of coffee drinking sophistication was "milk and a dash" - a third of a pint of scalding milk with a tablespoon of vile brown liquid from a massive urn (which incidentally was never cleaned and was kept just below boiling for hours on end).

I was started on coffee sometime in the mid '60s by my mum, a stovetop percolator and a bag of Blue Mountain (I think she must have had a pools win that week!) ground by Cave Austen in Blackheath. It was the smell that hooked me I think, rather than the taste.

From there I have progressed through percolators (stove top and electric), paper filters, electric filter machines, Bialettis, French press, and God knows how many other gadgets and gizmos to arrive at the Gaggia Classic. I am yet to taste the perfect shot but feel I am creeping ever closer!


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## Nijntje (Oct 2, 2013)

At first I didn't think I could answer this question but then it came back to me:

When I was about 13 I went on a French exchange holiday, spent a week in a cottage in the Loire Valley (Chaumont sur Torrone? I think).

It was very relaxed, all the family were there, I found it all quite strange really, especially the very drawn out evening meals. Amazing food and fresh fromage frais from the farmer next door etc.

Anyway each meal was finished with a tiny cup of espresso and copious amounts of brown sugar.

I don't think I'd had much, if any coffee up until then but I quite enjoyed it with the sugar at least! I don't remember being offered any milk or cream with it.

I did in fact drink my coffee black right up until my mid twenties when my temperament mellowed along with my tastebuds.


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