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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A cup of drip Verona with a splash of heavy whipping cream. I started with the same colored apron.
Back in '92, I was beguiled by "French Vanilla" flavored drip coffee. It was exotic. Then I switched to "French Roast". Then my boss made me drink (stretching my memory here) shots of 12g-dosed grinder-doser-pile-aged 4oz lungo chock-full-a-robusta darth roast thingie-on-the-ginder tamped at 6 PSI and pulled for 8 seconds on a back-flushed-at-the-end-of-the-night Faema.

Oh, maybe I was 18, but I was a MAN! I rode that train for YEARS.
When I first started in coffee, Pumpkin Spice was my coffee of choice. I would even buy more and save it throughout the year when they weren't selling it. Now, I won't touch the stuff. Mmmm....propylene glycol....
I remember that coffee in New Zealand used to be only available as "essence". It was marketed under the trade name "Bushells" and tasted like marmite/vegemite (only Kiwis, Poms and Brits will know what I mean here) mixed with hot water. It was truly horrible but, amazingly, turned a generation of kiwis out in seach of "real" coffee. Just earlier this year I found an old bottle of the stuff at the back of a cupboard back home in Kiwi land. I opened it, sniffed the sticky, acrid aroma, and was instantly transported back to the fields of my youth. Thank god we have advanced so much since then... now if only the All Blacks can pick a leaf from that book of lessons.
International Coffee French Vanilla... the instant in the little spam-looking can.

Oh yeah... that was back in the DAY!

Now its just lots of drip and FP... a little from everywhere.
I used to work for Gloria Jeans Coffee Bean (17 years ago!!). We sold about 50 different varieties of flavored coffee beans. I would come home reaking of the combination of them all! The one flavor I would suggest to all the customers though was cinnamon hazelnut. I turned my mother and father on it it. I drank it hot or iced all day at work and would give it as Christmas gifts. Now when I take in the aroma of a just opened vaccum sealed bag of dark roast beans pure from any fake flavorings - it is almost well, orgasmic. I hope I didn't go too far there.
The worst thing I ever drank was the Starbucks Kool-Aid for a shade over 3 years.

I still remember the disbelief/denial I felt when I began to realize that their espresso was garbage; I bought one of their home "Barista" espresso machines and I made better americanos at home... using the espresso pods!
Snickers Mocha--first coffee drink i ever liked when i started with Bear Creek Coffee. Eight years later, the mention of it makes my teeth hurt just thinking about the sugar content.

In middle school, i was always a fan of the gas station French Vanilla bubbleccino too...classic.
Shawn said:

I still remember the disbelief/denial I felt when I began to realize that their espresso was garbage; I bought one of their home "Barista" espresso machines and I made better americanos at home... using the espresso pods!

I remember when I had that revelation myself. I even had the chance to ask one of the people from the Starbucks Coffee Department why the espresso didn't produce more crema and she got really nasty about it. I think she was tired of the question. I was SO disappointed after Espresso dell'Anatra had been open about a year, I went on the day the order came in and got the "freshest" bag of espresso I could from them and tested it out with better techniques, tampers that fit the portafilter (back when Starbucks used such things), everything. And it was not good.

I'm going to guess that it tasted about like JIm's French Roast coffee. What a great description. I'm sorry that I know that taste.
I didn't drink coffee the first six months I worked in the business. I was stricktly an iced tea drinker. I finally thought that since I liked Jamocha milkshakes from Arbys that there had to be a coffee I would like. I guess I started drinking half hot chocolate half drip, then graduated to a mocha. I do remember loving flavored coffee by the time I was doing coffee full time.

Now.....well I drink mostly drip or French Press, and these days I tend to like Ethiopian coffees. I still prefer my coffee with a bit of sugar and cream, but I do drink black coffee every day to taste what we are serving the customers.
I love threads like this! My old time favorites were: in the beginning, hot flavored cocoa packets from the grocery store-not just ANY old cocoa, but the "gourmet" ones like raspberry chocolate or mint chocolate! I'd buy those and mix 'em with my coffee at home.

THEN, at work- i'd pull a double over ice (hmmm), with an ounce of Swiss Chocolate and and ounce of vanilla and top it off with a little half and half.

bleh.

ok, so i tried the later one just the other day with half as much flavoring and i didn't pull the espresso over ice.

it was still bad.
My favorite used to be the "vanilla cappuccinos" at quick trip, but I wouldn't stop there. I wasn't satisfied with my "vanilla cappuccino" until i had put an additional 4 packets of sugar and three "Swiss chocolate" creamer cups in there. I haven't gone back to try one. That's just scary. Who would do that?
I currently love French press, espresso, macchiatos, 6-12oz cappuccinos or lattes, and iced lattes. Get that suga' outa my FACE!

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