To compliment the Tea thread, lets talk about coffee.
McDonalds has to be simultaneously the worst, and a decent cup of coffee.. depending on what you need. If you want something to taste good... this isn't the coffee for you. If you need something that is dirt cheap (or a cup to reuse later the same day) and just need the caffeine. It's good with cream too.
Coffee at local restaurants, it varies between great and meh. I think it depends on the last time they descaled their coffee pots though. Hands down the best coffee I've had at a restaurants was at Kelly O's in the strip. Literally the best stuff I've ever had. With cream or without.. only place that I went for breakfast for work that I had to take a togo cup with me. Best shit ever!
As for homemade stuff... I used to own a Keurig. The drinks that made were ok , but weren't great. I honestly haven't used mine for more than a year too, and I had the one that is both a conventional coffee machine and a pod machine. Even using my own coffee in a refillable pod it was... not the best. I since invested in a water kettle and a pour over.
Full bean or preground, I honestly would say the two are very close, with the freshly ground stuff just being a scootch above preground.
Here is a tip though. Buy some
tea filters from papa Bezos and put your coffee in there. Instead of a usual 2tsp for a cup you can use less, or more, and get a really bold brew.
I recently subscribed to a monthly coffee sampler. Like $10 a month for 5 types of whole bean coffee.. pretty good until I get to the point where I can't differentiate between the flavors.
Kuhns has a good selection of preground flavored coffees for like $1 a bag.
Starbucks blonde roast is good. Everything else, no thanks. Same with dunkn.
Adding to coffee, cream almost always, though without is just fine. Eating out I always put some coffee in the cream. Sugar, almost never, unless the coffee is nasty from the start.
I never use any of the sweeteners other than sugar. Yellow, blue, or pink packets of chemical aren't for me. Though a long time ago when I made tea I used to put a load of splenda in it, I can't do that anymore.
Oh and one thing that I'm likely to get some hate for, coffee flavor depends on the cup. There is a clear flavor difference in coffee if the cup is fresh and clean vs having some coffee stain from previous drinks. And I prefer the taste in an already used cup. I do clean it but not between every single brew I make though.
Coffee
... I surely should of been able to guess that.
