I had a barista call me out for liking burnt coffee and it messed with my head

So last Saturday at this little shop in Portland (shoutout to Proud Mary), the barista asked what I usually order. I said a dark roast black and she goes "you know that just tastes like ash, right?" Not mean, just direct. She pulled me a light roast Ethiopian instead and I swear I tasted actual fruit for the first time in a coffee drink. Now I'm wondering if I've been defending bad coffee for like 5 years because I thought "dark" meant "strong". Has anyone else had their whole coffee identity wrecked by a stranger?

3 comments

3 Comments

taylorellis25d ago

Wait, do you think there's a difference between what you actually like and what you convinced yourself to like because it felt more "serious"? Like, did you pick dark roast because it felt like the more adult or hardcore coffee choice, or did you just genuinely not know any better? I feel like there's a whole layer of coffee insecurity that nobody talks about, where people order something just because it sounds legit or expensive.

wendyprice25d ago

Wait, is it possible to retrain your taste buds or something, or is it more like you just discovered what good coffee actually tastes like? Because I feel like there is this whole unspoken thing where we all pretend we like certain flavors to fit in, especially with stuff like wine or whiskey or coffee where bitter or strong is seen as "real" flavor. Like, I remember forcing myself to drink black coffee for a month because I thought it made me look more serious at work, but honestly I just ended up hating my mornings. Then one day I tried a natural processed Ethiopian and it was like a fruit bomb, and that's when I realized I was just drinking burnt water before. So is it really that we were insecure and picked wrong, or did we just have bad coffee and the right beans fixed everything?

patricialee25d ago

5 years of burnt coffee, damn. I had almost the exact same thing happen at a shop in Austin about 2 years ago. I always got a medium roast with cream and sugar, thought I was real sophisticated. Guy handed me a pour-over of some Kenyan bean and said "try it black first" and I swear it tasted like blueberries. Made me realize I had been covering up bad coffee for years with all that extra stuff. Now I can't go back to anything past a medium roast without feeling like I'm chewing on a campfire.