Bumble, I too like the darkest roast. I drink (at home) Starbucks french roast. I am addicted. If they are out of the french roast i will get espresso roast. I have never looked to see which is darker.

We like half-caf. I used to buy Papanicholas, a bag each of caf and decaf beans, and grind them together at the store. But they rearranged the coffee section and the grinder moved higher and I couldn't manage it!

So we get Maxwell House or Folgers, whichever is available or on sale. They are the only ones I've seen in the store with half-caf.

We are not coffee-istas!

Peet's Major Dickason's blend. It's relatively strong but doesn't have a burned taste. Our grocery store also has periodic stock-up sales so the price is reasonable as well.

I bounce around. ShareWell, a local roaster, has a blend I usually like called Carolina Bloom Shine, but as a blend it varies so sometimes it's not my cuppa ;) I also like the organic fair trade Honduran from Aldi. Costco has Ruta Maya organic in dark and medium roast which I like separately and ground together. I buy whole bean only, grind 2 - 3 days at a time for myself (DH does not drink coffee) and I keep the beans in a large airtight container in a cool dark space. The small ground amount is kept in a small airtight jar. Light is the other enemy of coffee.

Peet's Major Dickason's here, too. Deegw, we get 2# bags of beans at Costco. And I think you can get it from Costco online, too.

I don’t drink coffee often but my husband likes strong coffee. We also get Peet's Major Dickason's blend coffee beans at Sam’s Club and grind ourselves. Like DLM, we grind for a few days at a time and keep in an airtight container in our pantry.

If you like a dark roast then you should try this ”Cuban” bean, Pilon It’s my favorite.

For something less exclusive, LOL, we like Starbuck’s Komodo Dragon (in my grinder) mixed with the Guatamala (ground) from Aldi.

First choice is the Mountain Blend, fresh roasted at Dancing Bean coffee shop in Townsend, TN.

I am not a coffee drinker, but DH and DD2 love Black Rifle "Smooth Silencer." I started sending DD2 and SIL orders after they had at our house. I drink two cups of hot Cafe Escapes Chai Latte each morning.

I'll be honest. I don't really like coffee, but I like a hot drink in the morning. I have about 1/3 cup of decaf coffee with 2/3 creamer (sugar free). I like different creamers. I also splurge occasionally on an english toffee flavored cappuccino. I say splurge, because it has sugar.

@Springroz I'm not far from Townsend! Are you in the area?

I am still on a hunt for the darkest possible coffee roast ever as I do make lattes each morning. The beans are ground right before pulling, to get thick crema.

So far, sadly, Starbucks espresso roast is the best and I have tried a lot of coffees although not pilon.

Mmmmm, I love coffee, rich, and smooth, and dark. I am fairly addicted to Coffee by Design’s Alonzo’s Double Dark. DH and I were served it at a restaurant about 13 years ago and we’ve loved it ever since. They describe it as ”dark chocolate, smoky and roasty.” It used to be a treat, but since Covid, I realized they ship for free for a few pounds of coffee and life‘s too short for bad coffee. As a bonus, I make the day of my postal delivery person, my coffee package smells so good since it comes right from the roaster to my door.

I mix a bag of Starbucks Pike Place with a bag of Starbucks Caramel. I drink it black and have found I don't like it quite as robust as I used to so the Caramel softens it a bit but doesn't really give it a "flavor". I don't know what possessed me to do this in the first place but I've gotten compliments on my coffee when people have had it at my house.

Illy Classico and Major Dickason's.

Starbucks Italian roast , French roast second. I drink it black. I also like a store brand of Italian Roast. i was sur that a store brand is so good. Brand is called Signature. I love coffee

I don't drink coffee (as a rule), but my brother buys raw beans and roasts them himself so that he can get a pale blonde roast. He makes very weak coffee, which no one will drink except for him, but this is what he likes. I think he buys Guatemalan beans, and he roasts them outside so that the smell will not be in the house. The smell of coffee being brewed is one thing, but the smell of coffee being roasted is quite another matter.

I'm a dark coffee lover too, but as I get older I grind my beans and add already ground decaf into it. Right now I'm using Starbucks Espresso with Peets Major Dickinson decaf.

Costco is selling Starbucks Winter Blend from now until they run out, and I really like that.

@Bumblebeez SC Zone 7, Pilon will put out a nice head of crema. I came across it in a Cuban restaurant in Fernandina and have been buying it ever since. I get an 8lb bundle through Amazon for $77.

I’d pull one and send you a picture but I’m past my caffeine cut off time for today. ;-)

Another Peet's Major Dickinson fan. Also like some local coffee company blends that are strong and smooth.

Mmmm now I want a cup.

We use a Nespresso machine but I just use it to make regular coffee, not espresso. I’m no coffee afficionado, but it annoys me that the coffee isn’t hot enough after I add milk (cold). I have a milk heater/frother thing but that’t just another thing to wash, so I end up just sticking my coffee in the microwave for 20 sec after adding milk.

When I stayed with my 25 yo son recently, he made coffee in a regular coffee maker using freshly ground beans every morning, and I realized I missed regular ol’ coffee machine coffee. For a long time we had a Nespresso for DH and a regular coffee maker for me. We may have to go back to that again.

@Tina Marie , we live a few hours away, in KY, but DH has biz associates in Knoxville, so we use that as a stepping stone to go to the mountains!!!

DH and I prefer a medium roast, black, no sweetener. Because we like to drink a large volume of coffee and don't want our hearts to explode, we do "half caff": a mix of 50%Lavazza Classico and 50% Peets Decaf Terrena.

The smell of coffee being brewed is one thing, but the smell of coffee being roasted is quite another matter.

I detest coffee almost as much as I dislike the color red. But my DH and all my kids love coffee; my kids have been drinking it since elementary school (Brazilian nannies). Sometimes they grinds beans, sometimes French press, sometimes Keurig! Or sometimes they go out to any manner of specialty shops

I find the odor (yes to me it is an odor) unbearably acrid, akin to cigarette smoke. The worst thing is overnight flights, when that is how you are awakened and you cannot escape that. smell.

The second worst thing is when you ask for hot water for tea, and the water smells like coffee because no one cares about tea drinkers and they boil water in anything. Arrggghhhh.

My fave tea is Mango Ceylon Decaf. I like peppermint and chamomile too. I used to love a Green Apple tea in the UK but can only find spiced apple here (no thx)

We drink Jet Fuel by Independence Coffee. It's a dark roast that makes espresso DH likes and coffee for the rest of us. I totally admit to the name getting my attention -- our favorite coffee in CA was from Deaf Dog Coffee, with names like Bark and Bite for their dark roast and Sleeping Dog for the decaf. We had been searching for a new coffee after a friend's shop with in-house roasting went out of business and between the name and a squeeze and sniff of the bag, I had a feeling DH would like it. We've been drinking it pretty much ever since, though we did try Jackhammer and Laughing Donkey too. I like lighter coffees too (and tea), but DH has a specific dark roast profile he likes, so I'm just happy we found one we both like.

Bumblebeez, I just noticed that they have a limited edition coffee back in stock -- said to be darker than Jet Fuel and Jack Hammer, but still not burnt tasting. It's called Charlotte's Dark Heart. We may have to try it -- little bit of a gamble. For some reason, it is only in a 5lb bag or Nepresso capsules this year.

We drink cold press coffee concentrate that is shipped to us overnight on dry ice. It is actually meant for a large commercial coffee machine in a restaurant and comes in a plastic bladder with a valve that would attach inside the right (massive) machine. We snip off one end of the plastic bladder and decant the two liters of concentrated coffee into 20 oz squeeze bottles. One stays in the kitchen fridge and the others go in the garage fridge. To make coffee we measure out two to four teaspoons of concentrate into a mug, then fill it with boiling water from our insinkerator tap at the kitchen sink. It sounds like a lot of work, and i guess it is occasionally, but we’re used to it. At about 75 cents per cup it is pricey but on a par with some home machine made coffees and certainly much cheaper than coffee house beverages. It’s very, very smooth and has ruined my palate for most other coffee, which now tastes harsh and bitter to me.

I find the odor (yes to me it is an odor) unbearably acrid

Same. It was the worst during my first pregnancy. The smell of coffee brewing was not compatible with morning sickness. I still don't like to be anywhere near the coffeemaker each morning. I am the chosen one to divide 5lbs of coffee into air tight containers. I have to hold my breath. Yet I love the smell of a barn.

I find things like this fascinating:

Another example is the of almond and cherry. Both accepted when doing taste tests.

Cilantro tastes like soap to some people.

eld, since I live in Colorado, sometimes I get a random whiff of coffee and my first thought is weed, not skunk. Very similar odors.

I like cilantro. The smell of almonds often turns me off but I do eat almonds. The smell of tarragon makes me gag but I do like other licorice types herbs and spices - anise, caraway, fennel, etc.

Brains are weird :)

In my younger working years, the smell of coffee really used to bother me but either I just got used to the smell eventually or I’m somehow immune to it now. I don’t really notice. I love tea, and like Mtn, get so annoyed when a coffee pot is used to heat water for tea. YUCK! We have an electic kettle at home which I love as it can heat water to different temps for various types of tea, as well as a setting for French Press coffee. We have a Nespresso machine, but for regular coffee, we use a reusable pour over funnel/filter. My daughter likes flavored coffee though and DH detests that so he won’t use the filter after her (has to go through dishwasher first).

Speaking of annoying smells, I was visiting my oldest daughter in San Diego in September. Every day I took her dog on very long walks through her neighborhood and often there was an overwhelming "cat urine" smell many times throughout my walk. She lives in a very liberal neighborhood and eventually I realized it was not cat pee I was smelling but marijuana! I had no idea there is actually a strain called ”Cat Piss”

Really!!!😂

hmmm cat piss weed??? I thought you were going to say boxwoods as there is a variety that smells like urine. LOL

I have the Cilantro takes like soap thing. It was so weird years ago, trying to figure out what was going on. I ordered a dish at a Chinese restaurant and was convinced they poured dish soap into my food.

I could be a Cilantro taste-tester, because I know if there are even tiny traces in any food...it feels/smells like I'm eating Palmolive. The green kind. Yum.... haha.

However I LOVE coffee. I swear knowing I was going to get my cup of morning happiness is the only thing that kept me employed for the last few years. That was pre-covid, when I had to leave my house to work. The world is a lot different these days....in so many ways.

I love the smell of coffee, but it is purely medicinal to me as a drink. I drink a capuccino in the morning and an espresso in the afternoon, both doubles. I find coffee acrid tasting and bitter, unless it is filled with the equivalent sugar and cream of Hagaan Dazs coffee flavored ice cream.

Tea, I drink for pleasure. English Breakfast with two sugar cubes and a drop of milk, or plain Earl Grey. I drink about four cups of tea per day. My husband and children do not drink coffee, we look like we are Mormons at Starbucks sometimes. My children love all sorts of teas, from fruit flavored ones, to herbal teas, Chinese white teas, like Silver Needle, to the pretty, but not so great tasting to me, Flower Teas I bought them when they were little.

As for the smell of weed, my mother's first trip to Amsterdam was in the mid 60s. She was a very young and sheltered 20 year old, who associated the Netherlands with butter and cheese and she thought the city smelled like dairy products in those days, until she learned better 🤣.

WRT cilantro, I can join your detection team, patriceny. I can taste it instantly.

My siblings and I were raised alongside our Scottish nana, and grew up drinking tea with her. We are all still devoted tea drinkers. But, I finally started learning to drink coffee when I married my husband. It’s taken a looong time to be able to actually enjoy it, but I now drink Starbucks House Blend with him every morning at breakfast. Black!

I understand the smell, but for me coffee is sometimes a wonderful aroma and sometimes reminds me of a skunk. In fact, one morning not that long ago, I walked into the kitchen and asked DH if there had been a skunk outside. He asked, "Huh?" as I realized he was making his espresso. I told him nevermind. This is the same coffee that I usually love -- but every once in a while.... I don't know what makes the difference. I used to have the cilantro=soap thing too, but now I like cilantro -- most of the time.

Bumblebeez, I am getting a bag of the Charlotte's Dark Heart in our delivery next month. I can let you know what we think or maybe send you a sample. Let me know if you are interested.

I drink coffee off and on all day, even now before bedtime. We buy different brands for the coffee maker, as long as it's strong and black I don't care.

However, in my bathroom I keep instant coffee so I can sneak in there in the mornings and have a cup in peace so I don't have to be the one to let the dogs out. :)

Hot tap water works fine.

Wegman’s dark roast espresso cappuccinos - 4 shots every day I’m at home.

My husband and I like Dunkin brand coffee. We buy the regular and their French Vanilla. We've tried many different grocery store available brands but settled on Dunkin as our favorite.

Emerils Big Easy Bold is my favorite. i use the Keurig pods but not sure if it is available ground by the bag.

Lascatx, that is very nice of you, yes, I would love a sample! I couldn't send you a private message though but you can send me an email to jackiefaye@bellsouth.net and I will reply.

Lately I've been alternating between Death Wish, Koffee Kult, Kicking Horse and Starbucks. All espresso roast beans or the darkest they have.

The only brand I found absolutely undrinkable was Intelligentsia.

I love my one cup of coffee every morning but after reading these posts I am not a sophisticated drinker. i like McCafe coffee.

Interesting chemistry above. I've often wondered if coffee shares any chemical compounds with cigarette smoke.

I think for some it is certainly addictive!! Maybe it's the caffeine?

It is interesting how different food aromas remind us of other smells. I stir a teaspoon of very dark cocoa into my milk before heating and the smell reminds me of stinky dog every time.

Coffee smells like urine sometimes too.

I love the aroma and taste of good coffee. I grew up with coffee drinkers. Bunny I know what you’re saying once in a while you get that unusual tuna note or sometimes the skunk note.

I really love cilantro and when I first tried it did taste like soap and bugs. I had it with Mexican food and so it was mixed with lime. I use cilantro in a lot of Southeast Asian foods where it is often mixed with lime, Nampa or fish sauce, and sugar. Heavenly in a dish. There is a Thai seafood salad the dressing for which is Fish/lime juice and palm sugar. He has other things too.

Sometimes Tea, roses and raspberries have similar notes.

We’re not gonna talk about toe jam and cheese.

Bumblebeez, did you get my email? I did not get a reply or a delivery failure, so let me know if I need to try again.

Hi lascatx, I finally saw the message, thank you so much for mentioning it here and reminding me and I have replied!