I don't really drink coffee unless I need an upper. Coffee tastes terribly bitter to me. I don't outright enjoy it unless I add cream and sugar to it. I like the aroma more than the taste.
When I drink tea, I need large amounts of sugar to just to cut through bitterness.
Similarly, if blue cheese wasn't so bitter, it would be all right.
Light lagers/pilsners used to make me gag because they were so bitter. That's gotten better with age.
I'm sensitive to bitterness, it seems.
@Combaticus I've had coffee from so many different places, from awful coffee machines to fancy coffee bars. It usually takes at least a bit of milk/cream to make it outright enjoyable to me. That, or a piece of cake. The bitterness needs to be masked somehow. Latte is fine. A shot of espresso is too much.
I still suspect I'm sensitive to flavours that other people are not. Some of the coffees from the machine at work are so terrible I suspect the machine of being broken, but no one complains.
@Combaticus The thing produces coffee that very closely approximates dish washing water. Very bitter stuff with no aroma and a fake aftertaste, like a poor simulacrum of coffee. People at the office don't seem to mind, however. It seems they don't notice it as much... or maybe they've worked there for long enough to be brainwashed...
@thor It's amazing what a drug addict will put up with to get their fix. ;)
@thor Do you enjoy wine?
@Combaticus Red wine? Not so much. White wine? It's palatable. If I have a choice, I always go for white wine or champagne. Drinking wine with food doesn't really improve the food. One second, you taste something delicious. The next, your tongue is numbed with bitterness. I feel that I can very easily taste the alcohol in things.
@thor You absolutely have a sensitivity. What agrees with you besides water?
@Combaticus Soda, orange juice, carbonated water, cocoa, anything that isn't bitter, really. I've also noticed that I'm not very fond of celery and marzipan. They taste quite pungent to me. Many vegetables taste bitter to me unless I drown them in ground pepper or dressing (salads) or salt and butter (steamed). Raw tomatoes are mildly gag-inducing to me. I'm not afraid of flavours or spices, though. American BBQ, Indian and Tex-Mex are lovely.
@thor Hmmm. Coffee shouldn't be bitter unless it's not prepared correctly or is a poor-quality bean. Even so, done well it's still not for everyone. I love the stuff and roast my own ...