What really bad coffee / espresso beverage did you used to swear by, but now can't even think about drinking?

And furthermore, what are you drinking now?

For example, I used to down 3 or 4 (to lapse into Starbuckease) a quad tall 4 pump vanilla breve with whip lattes nearly every day when I worked there for 4.5 years.

I tried one about a year ago just for old times sake and nearly redeposited it on my shoes. It was like hot, melted ice cream and was soooo sickeningly sweet. I've been apologizing to myself about it ever since.

Now, I'm all about straight shots. macchiatos and sometimes a 5-6 oz capp if I need something sweet (hold the whip).

We all evolve. It's good to remember where you came from.

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After a long hard day of not doing my homework, I'd gather with the fellow patrons of Denny's. I'd sit from 2- 7 hours and drink crunchy, bitter, stale coffee... cup after cup. 1 packet of cream and 2 packets of sugar. The waitress would eventually just bring me a pot and set it on the table. Ahh... those were the days.
never used to drink coffee, as growing up it was just a jar of instant "nescafe" in our house! my dad still drinks it bless him :) slowly introduced myself to weak lattes made with horribly burnt espresso and drowned in syrup yuk!!! Now drink double machiatos and will only drink them where i work, where i know the beans are freshly roasted a coupl days before and that i wont be gettin a dollop of fluffy bubbly foam on top. Also drinking a single origin ethiopian drip filter right now too, pretty good
i as well was captured by the snickers mocha. back in the day the less i could taste that blasted espresso the better. then again, i was sixteen and apparently had a metabolism booming enough to process the crap. if i drank now what i drank then... i'd be a whole new me. i'd probably be a whole new several me's.
I used to brew a big pot of Folgers (I will fill the filter full) and then forget about it. A couple days later, I would warm the coffee up on the stove and drink it....yum!
Paul won the thread!!
This is an awesome topic. I used to get Starbucks Mocha's with an extra shot of espresso. I loved it... Then I decided to get a cup of coffee from Starbucks one day and I can't beleive that I was ashamed to dislike it. I remember actually sneaking into the bathroom to dump the coffee out of my cup and then leaving the store pretending to be still drinking the coffee. It was a long time before I even trusted coffee at any coffee shop after that because I thought that coffee shops had to brew the coffee 10X too strong in order to be cool, and I just couldn't hang.

Fortunately I ran into a little shop called Coffee Station and I experienced the best coffee of my life. Now I drink straight espressos and macchiatos all the time. I still gag on Starbucks coffee and nearly choke on the espresso there. About three weeks ago I ordered a mocha because I thought hey I used to like it... bleh. It was terrible I must have been pretending, I don't know how I ever drank those things.

Note: I can still handle a mocha when the milk is stretched properly and with a good shot of espresso. Although I prefer drinks with less milk and no sugar. Like macchiatos and double capps.
I grew up in a small town in idaho where the only coffee you can GET is at the 7 eleven. I used to add those nasty flavored single dose creamers to it...we call it teenage coffee.....the thought of it makes me sick..

the coffee was pretty watered down and then to add all those sugary creamers??? why not just drink postum..and if you know what that is, then you really are from a town in idaho surrounded by mormons....yikes.

now i drink a soy macchiato every morning, and a small cup o drip. stumptown roasters...yummy.
I started drinking coffee around 11 or 12. We brewed regular drip and I added cream. I didn't like the way sugar changed the taste. This was when specialty coffee was fairly new, at least in Portland. My treat of choice was a double 16 oz mocha with god knows how much Torani syrup (hazelnut or irish cream). I actually didn't step foot into a Sbux until maybe 94 and when I tried to order my drink, they got all snotty about the syrup and explained they only carried vanilla or almond (can you imagine that now?). I thought the coffee was awful and never went back. And this was waaaay before I really knew anything about coffee. The worst, though, was bought at the 7-11 on the way to school: Cappio. It came in brown 12 oz or 40 oz bottles and you could get Coffee, Vanilla or Mocha. I was really, really disappointed when I couldn't find it anymore.
It was around these dark ages that I tried a straight espresso for the first time. The experience put me off drinking shots, even after years of working in coffee shops. And now, that's pretty much all I drink.
Back when I first started drinking anything remotely coffee-like, I would always try to convince my mom to buy me "Snickers" or "Almond Joy" mochas (I was like 12), and now I'm beyond repulsed by the memory of the unforgivably bitter espresso, smothered by 10 types of sweet.

My favorite foofy-drink now is a Blended Soy Peanut Butter and Joe Mocha, I'm a soy-drinker by dietary necessity and I just love how the peanut better blends with the taste and consistency of the soy to make it an over-all smoother drink. The peanut butter also accents the sweet and silky taste of the espresso it accompanies.

As for my good-ol' standby, I love a good soy vanilla latte. Lucky for me I have found the best cafe to make delicious soy drinks that suit my taste!
For 2 years I worked at a college campus cafe, I had probably a dozen customers who would only drink coffee made by me. Several co-workers even thought I made the best coffee there. Today I know how badly calibrated the machine was, how over-steamed the milk, and how stale the beans were... I was all about Mochas, with extra whipped cream. I would make a 16oz mocha in a 20oz cup and fill it up with whip.

These days it's mostly black french pressed coffee at home/work, or a macchiato when I go out. Stumptown's Ethiopia Misty Valley is my current favorite bean for pressed, and Intelligentsia Black Cat for espresso. I'm happy to hear any recommendations if people think I can do better, but it's ALL a ton better than the old days.
This is a little embarrassing but I used to be super into this drink called a Mr. B's from the coffee shop I know work at. It was white cocoa, a frozen latte concoction, and Irish-creme, I tried one the other day for old time sake could not handle more then a few sips... I'm surprised I never suffered a cavity at the hand of Mr. B's.

It was a long rode getting me to where I am today. I can't even handle drip coffee now, which is good but being picky is somewhat of a pain ;).
After becoming a "barista" at the mall, I was sure a hazelnut Americano was an extremely sophisticated and refined choice...

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