Jasdip, you could just be getting tougher.

I like my coffee full flavored and rather strong. I use a French press and whole beans that I grind as needed. Never anything that comes out of a can!! I have noticed no difference or "dumbing down" of favor so my first suggestion to you would be to avoid canned ground coffee that may have been sitting around for months. The fresher the better!

GG, I've wondered if a French press would be good.

I've had pour-overs (Chemex), Mr. Coffee-like machines and drips and IMO, a French press makes the best coffee, hands down!

I use Maxwell House original. I used to buy the big blue plastic container, but found it went stale before using it up. I now buy the small container. They were 1 lb years ago, 15 ozs last year, and now are 10.5 ozs.

Perhaps your coffee maker isn’t heating the water to the same temperature it once did. I’m not an expert, but I do know that the temperature at which coffee brews affects the taste quality.

DH has been getting Maxwell House in the big blue can three times now. I don’t consider myself a coffee afficianado (afficionada?), I just like a cup of coffee, but I commented to him that I don’t find it particularly satisfying or flavorful. Perhaps because where he goes grocery shopping is often not the best quality even of name brands. But thanks to this thread, I have credence to my thinking.

Usually we get ”half-caf”, but it is not as readily found, and rarely on sale, and coffee has risen in price. The MH is full caf, but it sure doesn’t seem like it.

and fraker, maybe our coffeemaker is the problem. It doesn’t seem to be quite as hot these days; hot, but not as hot.

Pre-ground, mass-marketed coffee never tastes as good as fresh ground beans. No matter how you brew it.

"Then again, my friend who made it to 100 this year tells me that as we age, we lose our sense of taste, so nothing tastes as good as we remember it..."

I agree, taste buds change with age.

I lost my taste for Maxwell House about 30 years ago. After trying a number of different brands I settled on Folger's. Then went to Folger's dark roast. Now I'm drinking Folger's Black Silk. Delicious! For now, anyway.

Let's face it, we all age, whether we want to admit it or not. (Grin)

Rusty

Possibly fraker is on to something. Maybe your coffee maker needs to be replaced? That's a very valid possibility.

I stopped buying Maxwell House a long time ago. We used to like it very much but then it started to taste of a stale ash tray, it was weird! I swear it smelled like tobacco rather than coffee. My husband and I both noticed this! We really like Dunkin' Donut coffee but it's so expensive! We just got Starbucks on sale at Sam's Club for a decent price and it's OK but a bit stronger than Dunkin'.

It is certainly true that my tastes have changed over the years. I used to eat Twinkies. And even if our tastebuds get tired (as opposed to tastes changing like outgrowing Twinkies) and don't do such a good job when we are old, there are plenty of things I love to eat. Rather have washed out buds than the alternative, which is dead buds.

Yes it does seem to me I have to use more coffee to get it as strong as I like it.

Companies change the formulas. They know that the baby boomers are dying off and the next generation has no experience with how it used to taste so they can do whatever they like to cut quality. So many good products that have been around for generations aren't worth buying anymore.

Eileen, do you have real, inside facts as the basis for what you allege? I suspect not.

Coffee is an agricultural product. The characteristics of a given year's harvest of any agricultural product will vary year to year, plot to plot.

Single origin coffees or blends will never be the same from one time to the next, year to year. Blends will have different ingredient mixes that vary from one time to the next in pursuit of some constancy of flavor, just as is done with wine blends.

I agree that good quality freshly ground coffee should always taste better than the mass market canned stuff (most of which are blends) but even freshly roasted coffee varies.

DSII has a French press coffee maker. After tasting his coffee, I bought one. Very much improved flavor even using the same brand of coffee. A French press can be had for not much money. Worth a try, IMO.

An important factor when brewing coffee is water temperature. Independent testing often finds that poor performing counter top coffee makers don't produce consistently hot enough water. Anyone interested can find info on the Serious Eats site.

For manual pour-over and French press users, the experts suggest water just below the boiling point.

i sonder if it might have something to do with the roast. On another note if you live anywhere near a Job Lot they have coffee at a fraction of the price of the average supermarket Three Sisters and Eastern Market coffee are about $4 for a full 1 oz pound .unfortunately i think iJobLot is an north east coast store

When you said "dumbing down," I thought you meant those horrible flavored coffees.

I hate, hate any flavoured coffee, Jupidupi!

I won't even put milk or creamer in my coffee! But I don't mind adding a hit of Bailey's around the holidays :-))

I recently bought an old-fashioned perkolator and have been brewing on stovetop. I like that I can control the strength by how long it perks. Took some experimenting to get it right.

I never liked flavored coffees, either, but recently when Jim was in the hospital and rehab for a month, I was stopping at Wawa on my way, or getting coffee at the kiosk in the lobby. And because the quality was never up to my home standards (fresh-ground Peets), I'd add a splash of hazelnut cream or flavoring to my coffee. And now I appreciate the flavoring. But none of the other flavorings except mocha or caramel do anything for me. Just don't get me started on pumpkin spice.

My husband's favorite coffee in the whole wide world is Dunkin' French Vanilla! He could live off that stuff! HAHA! Taste for coffee differs from person to person just as anything else. I was asking my sister what coffee she likes and she said she loves a very strong coffee. I have no use for coffee at all if it doesn't have sweetener and milk/cream in it. I detest the taste of it plain! So, you all can have your black coffee, I'll have my sweetener and cream...thanks! HA!

I prefer a medium roast, not so strong, and I use a vintage Melitta pour-over cone and whole bean organic Honduran coffee (Aldi), grind it in batches and store in the freezer.

Thinking a percolator, as mentioned above, might give you the strength you desire...?

I don't drink coffee, but my brother roasts his own beans because he likes a blond roast, and he makes the coffee very weak when he brews it. I've tasted it and think it is terrible, but if I drink a cup of it, it severely upsets my stomach.

I also hate the smell of roasting beans, and so Kevin roasts them outside, which is not a problem, since we have plenty of electrical outlets outdoors. He seems to have stopped drinking coffee altogether - possibly because he thought it was too much trouble to make, and he doesn't need it anymore. It is easy to stop drinking it if all you drink is weak blond coffee.

Percolated coffee has a "boiled coffee"taste I find unpleasant.

Gardengal, or Bailey’s alone. It’s on my ”wish list” if my family ever asks. I’ll be dropping hints!

When we stayed at a Swiss AirBnB, the coffee maker was a stovetop, like this one:

we liked it and bought one when we got home. We are lazy, though (really lazy, as this thing is not that hard to use!) and went back to our Mr Coffee type drip, but when our drip coffeemakers die, as they do, we use the Bialetti until we get a new machine.