What's the worst coffee worldwide?

[Trenchfriend]

It had a sort of "nutty" flavor, like it was made from cashews or walnuts that had gone bad, so they ground 'em up and put 'em in bags to sell to the suckers that ran our facility.

Grain coffee, maybe...

 

[Zombie_61]

Grain coffee, maybe...

Nope, that's not it. The stuff we drank looked like regular coffee when we put the grounds into the coffee maker (pre-measured packets), we brewed it like regular coffee, and it looked and smelled like regular coffee, but...

 

[Trenchfriend]

Nope, that's not it. The stuff we drank looked like regular coffee when we put the grounds into the coffee maker (pre-measured packets), we brewed it like regular coffee, and it looked and smelled like regular coffee, but...

Pure Robusta, maybe. I remember, that too much Robusta gives an ugly taste. Yes, kind of like rotten hazelnuts.

 

[LostInTyme]

1. The coffee served during basic training at Fort Knox, KY. A one pound can of coffee grounds would be poured into a galvanized garbage can, then filled with water from a rubber garden hose and heated until boiling. After chow was over, the remains coffee was dumped out, the can was refilled with more water and soap, and used to clean dirty food trays. It was not good coffee.

 

[60Years2Late]

I couldn't put my finger on the worst I've ever had, but if I had to guess it would be some I got at a reenactment one time. I'd driven to Cedar Creek, a small Civil War reenactment in VA, and I'd gotten in very late. After setting up, I'd only had a couple of hours of sleep. An officer from a neighboring regiment had made coffee and offered me some, which I gratefully accepted. When he poured it, it was a translucent khaki color, like weak tea or urine. Upon tasting, it was in fact a sort of coffee, but it tasted like reused grinds that had been made weak and then burnt. It was downright awful. About the only good thing about it was that it was too hot to really taste much of it at once. Turns out that this guy was reusing grinds and made weak coffee to simulate the soldier's experience better or something.

 

[MisterCairo]

I don't know about the worst coffee in the world, but apparently the best cup of coffee is at a local place in New York City:

 

[Frunobulax]

I worked at a small company at one time that provided our coffee in the break room via one of those Bunn coffee makers. As one of those guys who drank coffee all day, my co worker, Steve, would rake his travel mug into the break room around 4:30 and fill it with whatever was left - caff, decaf, old, burnt, didn't matter. That had to be one of the worst drinks on Earth.

 

[Trenchfriend]

Funny thing.

I wanted somenthing different, today.
So I made me a coffee turkish, but then I wasn't mood for it pure! So I swashed it through a kitchen strainer into a big mug and filled it up with milk, resulting in a circa 50/50 mix. But I added another spoon fo sugar.

And what should I say? It tasted nice and promplty reminded me of THIS:

OH MAN, THE 90s!
I surely eliminated hundrets of portion bags in my grandparents garden.

 

[broll22]

All coffee is good coffee if I need it badly enough

 

[ScionPI2005]

Starbucks is probably the worst tasting for me. It's burnt, and you have to get one of their drinks with so much sugar and syrup in it to cover up the bitterness.

However, I will say before moving to the Pacific Northwest, I had no idea that coffee could actually be smooth and not bitter. The spice store in Pike's Place Market (not sure if it is still around) had a great coffee called Kenyan Velvet. That was the first time I drank my coffee black.

These days, I'm enjoying Rainshadow from Sequim on the Olympic Peninsula and Lavazza, which is Italian.

 

[Trenchfriend]

Starbucks?

There's a saying in old Germany.
"You order Frappuccino and you get diarrhea in the cup with ice."

 

[Hercule]

Starbucks is probably the worst tasting for me. ...

However, I will say before moving to the Pacific Northwest, I had no idea that coffee could actually be smooth and not bitter. ...

A great many people, myself included, share your view of Starbucks. When pressed to go there (which, fortunately, is very seldom), I usually stick with the froo froo drinks. I just cannot stomach their coffee.

It really is an eye-opening experience when you have REAL coffee for the first time. I get misty-eyed just thinking about my first time - on a Copa airlines flight to Colombia some 25 years ago. Heavy sigh...

 

[ScionPI2005]

A great many people, myself included, share your view of Starbucks. When pressed to go there (which, fortunately, is very seldom), I usually stick with the froo froo drinks. I just cannot stomach their coffee.

It really is an eye-opening experience when you have REAL coffee for the first time. I get misty-eyed just thinking about my first time - on a Copa airlines flight to Colombia some 25 years ago. Heavy sigh...

It's most definitely an eye opener. I NEVER saw myself as a black coffee drinker. Now, with smooth non- bitter coffee, I've been drinking it black for at least four years. My grandfather would be proud.

 

[tonyb]

Unless the person is legitimately an alcoholic, everyone I know who drinks "coffee flavored" drinks does so for the flavors regardless of which establishment is serving them their coffee-of-choice, so liqueurs like Irish Cream and Kahlua are merely a part of that--the combination of flavors that the drinker prefers, even if one or more of them happens to contain 20% alcohol by volume. My dad preferred his beer and whiskey unmolested (he was an alcoholic), but my father-in-law liked Christian Brothers brandy in his coffee now and then...when it wasn't his own "home brewed" (the booze, not the coffee), that is.

Veering back towards the main topic, I wish I could remember the name of that horrid crap they bought at my second-to-last employer's offices. It was supposed to be the same coffee they served in restaurants all over southern California, but I never tasted it anywhere but the offices I worked out of. I don't know what it was, but it sure wasn't made from coffee beans. It had a sort of "nutty" flavor, like it was made from cashews or walnuts that had gone bad, so they ground 'em up and put 'em in bags to sell to the suckers that ran our facility.

Chicory, maybe?

I’ve had coffee/chicory blend a time or three. Palatable, as I recall, but I wouldn’t seek it out again.

 

[Hercule]

It's most definitely an eye opener. I NEVER saw myself as a black coffee drinker. Now, with smooth non- bitter coffee, I've been drinking it black for at least four years. My grandfather would be proud.

I've been taking mine black since junior high, nearly 50 years now. Though, I do on occasion enjoy it with a bit of cream, or even more rarely with both cream and sugar. I've found that sweet creamy cup of coffee can help with a headache.

Bitter (burnt a la Starbucks is an entirely different thing) never really bothered me - a dash of salt can cure that - it inhibits the bitter receptors on the tongue. It's acidic that I can't stand. No way, no how. To me acidic means either the roaster or the maker doesn't know what they're doing.

 

[tonyb]

My Dear Old Ma gradually weaned the Old Man off the cream and sugar. When they first met, she tells me, his coffee was mostly dairy product (cream or half-and-half) and sugar.

I’ve taken mine black pretty much from the git. In more recent decades I’ve generally preferred it on ice.

 

[Zombie_61]

...It really is an eye-opening experience when you have REAL coffee for the first time. I get misty-eyed just thinking about my first time - on a Copa airlines flight to Colombia some 25 years ago. Heavy sigh...

I'm convinced that the average American has absolutely no idea of what constitutes a "real" or even a "good" cup of coffee, which is why Starbucks has a shop on every square mile of the U.S.. I'm not much better, but I can recognize a real/good cup of coffee when I taste it; so far, I haven't found it in the Los Angeles area of southern California.

 

[novaseal]

Whatever the cheap garbage is that they have at my work. The only flavor is bitter and burnt. Some guys drink 5 or 6 cups a day, and I can only assume it's because they want free caffeine.

 

[Zombie_61]

Chicory, maybe?

I’ve had coffee/chicory blend a time or three. Palatable, as I recall, but I wouldn’t seek it out again.

It could have been; I don't remember seeing anything like that on the envelopes with the pre-measured coffee. I'll probably never know since the company is literally gone; the two dirt lots inside of the green lines are where it once stood:

Currently not much more than 320,000 square feet of reclaimed soil. I'm guessing the coffee is a lot worse now.

 

[Trenchfriend]

Classic Dallmayr decaffeinated is okay, drinkable, but not really coffee taste. I'm using the rest to make Cappuccino.

1 cup from the moka pot, filled up with 1.5% fat milk and not too less sugar. .