Coffee doesn't taste like coffee anymore.

[Lupatrian]

I'm obsessed with the reason for this. This is the latest thing I found out: SSRI's can affect taste; as can serotonin and noradrenaline imbalances. I take Zoloft, and coffee tastes like nothing anymore - no matter which high quality freshly roasted beans I buy, fresh grind, and French press. I miss coffee!

 

[Enigma-2]

Yea, I miss coffee from the 1950's as well. I miss a lot of things from my youth. Like the sweetness of Coca Cola from back then, like the different way steak and pork chops, surrounded by layers of fat, tasted. Like the taste of McDonalds fries that were made from fresh potatoes and deep fried in beef tallow, tasted. Todays are crap. Like eating fresh-picked mulberrys with your breakfast corn flakes. And like waking up yo a house filled with fleshly brewed Hills Brothers. Breakfast always tasted better with a cup of "cowboy coffee".

Sigh. Anyway, I think that it was the way it was made. Back in the day, coffee was percolated, that is, the water was prefused with coffee juice and the steam escaping carried the coffee vapor smell out into the room along with the steam. Over and over. Remember the little glass top where the coffee shot up and hit it on the inside? Sigh.

It was a different grind, more course. No paper filters. No paper taste. Come to think of it, water tasted different back then. Guess that was before so many chemicals were poured into the ground, spoiling it's taste. Hard water, none of this softened water crap.

Today's makers just pour hot water over a layer of ground coffee. And vapor escaping just carries hot water steam. With a little paper flavor. Sigh.

I say all this because the smell of bresh brewed coffee is half the pleasure. Why is it that I can still remember the taste of coffee from back then, but not the smell? Guess my smell memory is .... old.

Snort.

 

[Enigma-2]

Remember the Maxwell House coffee song?

 

[jaschamp]

Coffee just doesn't smell and taste the way it used to. What happened? My mother used to make coffee in a perculator. :shock: The whole house was filled with that wonderful aroma of fresh coffee. I don't remember the brand, but it was probably Maxwell House, Yuban or MJB. I tried all of them lately and they are tasteless.

For the last several years, I have been grinding my bean in a hand mill. I kind of settled on 8 O'Clock Colombian. It's not bad, but something is missing. A few years ago I bought some moka-java that was really good. When I bought the same brand again, it wasn't the same.

Sometimes McDonalds coffee is really good, but most of the time it's just like everyone else's, just hot brown water.

The closest I can come to describing the taste I looking for is good coffee flavored ice cream or hard candies. I'm not looking for a hint of strawberry or caramel, just good cup of joe.

Thanks in advance for your suggestions.

Get you some fresh roasted beans from thirtycoffee.com They have many options!

 

[froze]

This lack of smell and taste you have is probably from long-term damage that COVID-19 did to some people. I got COVID-19 4 times because I was working around kids, they would get it and so would I even though both of us wore masks. Anyway, I got lucky, my taste and smell were never hampered except in one bout where it went away about 50%, but then it came back. I have a friend who complains he can't smell as well as he used to, and things taste bland, he had COVID-19 once about 4 years ago and his senses still haven't come back. The one time I got COVID-19 it turned into long-term COVID-19, that one lasted about 6 months, it left me with mild high blood pressure.

I had both Moderna shots too, and it didn't do a damn bit of good, so I didn't take booster shots since the main shots didn't work.

 

[Enigma-2]

Think I remember reading where 10% of everyone who had covid developed high blood pressure. Tried Googled this and also found where "Persistent high blood pressure was more common among people infected with SARS-CoV-2 who were treated with vasopressor and corticosteroid medications during the pandemic."

Doesn't seem to be any end to the misery of this disease. We were very cautious when it first started to appear. Didn't get it until late last year when we ate at a Chinese restaurant. Wife lost her smell and taste, still lacks desire for many of her favorite foods.

We both took Paxlovid. Stuff works, but no miracle cure. Worked better for me as I wasn't as sick when I started it. But!!! There's a nasty little side effect they don't tell you about Paxlovid. If you are fairly well along when you start it, it takes a little longer but works good. If you not all that sick when you take it, it works in a couple of days, then there's a period of relative recovery, then covid returns. With a vengeance. It enough to put you in the hospital (my O2 never got below 92%) but much worst that original. Went to doc and he confirmed that that's a pattern they see. But it will keep you out of the hospital and that's a good thing.

BTW, vaccinations don't prevent any disease, only a physical barrier like medical grade masks and eye protection will help. (Like those worn on hospital settings.)

Vaccinations just give your immune system a jump on the disease as it doesn't have to create antibiotics (the vaccination already did this.) It's real benefit is to keep your immune system ahead of the virus, preventing it from sending you to the hospital; and in that regard, they work wonders.

You're absolutely right about Moderna. In fact it's no longer permitted for use in the US. Was not found to be effective. Wife and I went and got Pfizer, based on our family doctor's recommendation. (If fact we finally got our 4th booster a week ago.)

So what's all this have to do with coffee? -- Can't enjoy coffee if you can't smell it.

 

[froze]

Did you ever have Covid? A lot of people lost a certain percentage of their taste and smell and some of that never came back. I had covid 4 times due to being around school kids, and my smell and taste never went away, but I did get long term covid the last bout and that damn thing messed with my blood pressure, so now it runs a tad higher than it did before. I had a complete heart and lung workup done and they told me I the heart of a 35 year old...except I'm 73. So it all came back excellent, but now I have to take blood pressure meds.

Also as you age you naturally loose some smell and taste, it's why a lot of old people in their 80s and beyond get bored with food because they can't smell it or taste it, and they slack off on eating which isn't good.

However, after some research, it's not entirely due to aging, here's what I found, in the 1950s:

Coffee beans were typically roasted longer and at higher temperatures, which intensified the flavor and aroma.

Many households used percolators to brew coffee, which can over-extract the beans, leading to a stronger, sometimes bitter taste.

Coffee was often ground fresh at home or in local stores, preserving more of its natural oils and flavors.

The beans themselves were often of higher quality, with more robust flavor profiles.

So those 4 things did indeed contribute to the more intense smell and taste we got back then, but as with all things modern money is king, so they do things cheaper now to make more money and as a result we get more and more crap.

Percolators are tricky to use, I never used one, but my mom did, and she would watch it like a hawk, whereas other parents I knew the mom would just walk away doing other things. Having tasted the coffee made that way, the moms that walked away had bitter coffee, but for some reason they didn't care, they drank it like that day in and day out! My mom's coffee was not bitter, so guess which one I preferred? I can't recall how she used the percolator so I doubt I could make good coffee with it, at least not without a great deal of practice.

Moka Pot does come the closest to a percolator, but the moka pot makes the coffee better. I've had percolator coffee at my church, I don't care for it, but again not sure if the person making it is watching it well enough. But I love Moka pot coffee...as long as it comes out of my Bialetti Brikka, the regular Express moka pot I use to have I got inconsistent coffee, the Brikka is very consistent.

Most Percolators are large for making coffee for a lot of people, but if all you need is to make 1 to 3 cups, don't use a large one and think reducing the water will work, no it doesn't, buy a perc for the number of cups you will be making. The smaller 1 to 3 cup size percs are only made by GSI Outdoors called the Glacier, it's made of stainless steel, the smallest one on Amazon was 4 to 6 cups, but GSI also makes a 6 cup.

One of the comments here mentioned that back in the 50s they used Robusta beans, not sure where he heard that but my sources said it's not true. Even going back further into the 1800s coffee made in America was primarily Arabica beans, Robusta beans were not widely cultivated or used for coffee production at that time. Arabica beans were favored for their smoother, more balanced flavor compared to the stronger, more bitter taste of Robusta beans.

Today in the our wonderful modern world of schit, we will never get that experience back that we had in the 50s, if any thing as time goes by even more it will get worse. Even Starbucks coffee is a lot weaker than it was just 15 years ago.