Nobody else in my household drinks coffee, but I love it. However, I’d rather do without if I have to drink that paint remover sold by Folgers.
I started drinking coffee when I was 12. Living in Alaska, as I walked home from the weekly Boy Scout meetings, it was a good way to warm up. There was a laundromat about half-way home that allowed us to drink a free cup, as long as we didn’t make a mess. After a couple of weeks, I was hooked. By age 16, I had to have my own pot and started drinking it daily.
Since then, I’ve tasted some of the best and some of the worst. An example of the former is any cup of fresh brew from any of the Dutch railway stations. The government of the Netherlands owns Douwe Egbert, and sells that brand in rail stations, usually instant brewed rather like the so-called pod type coffee makers sold in department stores here. Only the stuff there is too good to describe. I suppose it has something to do with the Dutch practically ruling the seas about the time coffee became popular in the West. As I understand it, the Dutch have a pretty tight lock on what comes out of Indonesia and such.
Our Colombian coffee here in the US is actually the dregs of the market. While there is some decent stuff grown there, for some reason most American brands are just awful. One of my Dutch friends worked in some government office there having to do with tracking shipping, and told me the coffee dealers consider Colombian the “left overs” they didn’t want when the Dutch began gaining control of the market. I sampled some Folgers Custom Roast (“Mountain Grown” in Colombia) this week, and I could not take it. If we were reduced by economic troubles to only that brand, I’d stop drinking coffee. Something that bad could make you hate coffee. For just a few cents more per can, you can get at least Yuban, which isn’t so bad. Even that cardamon coffee from Palestine I once tasted is better, and I don’t like cardamon at all.
Anybody want some Folgers? I got a great big canister full.
What about diner coffe (Denny’s) or side of the road places along the Interstate that tastes like dishwater or a scoured pan? Better or worse than Foldgers?
I’ve not had coffee at Denny’s which was as bad as Folgers. However, I haven’t tried too many Denny’s restaurants. Most of the time their coffee is simply weak, while strong Folgers is still nasty. The worst coffee I’ve had from cafes is when they simply don’t clean the equipment and tend to burn the coffee by leaving it on the burner too long. The secret to good coffee making is always removing the oils from the previous batch of coffee.