Why does coffee smell so good, but taste so awful?

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Why does coffee smell so good, but taste so awful?

Low quality coffee is terrible, step up your game and experience the wonderful world of coffee.

That's something I'd like to know, too. Freshly ground coffee beans smell delicious, but the finished product is disgusting, to me.

Why does limburger cheese smell so bad, but taste good?

Who the frig knows?

But part of the problem is that coffee is bitter. So though your nose likes the smell, your tongue doesn't like the actual taste of the liquid.


For most grown ups coffee seems to be (as with me) an acquired taste. But my mom LOVED the stuff even when she was a child. She talked about her childhood attraction to coffee once as this forbidden enticing adult thing (you would have thought that she was talking about softcore porn). Go figure. But mom grew up in Colorado where they do weird stuff like drink "ice coffee" (like ice tea). The Brits think Americans are weird for drinking ice in tea. But apparently even within the US putting ice in your coffee is only a regional thing.

As SH90 says, you need to try better coffee: good coffee isn't bitter. NB that Starbucks is not good coffee; Starbucks takes middling quality beans and roasts them into charcoal.

I used to drink coffee with cream, but now that I buy better quality coffee I drink it black. Even my mom will occasionally take a sip of my coffee and say, "Hmm, I could actually drink that black."

I love coffee! I don't really have an addiction to gambling, drugs, alcohol, etc. But my one addiction is coffee. When I go to bed at night, I actually look forward to the sound the coffee maker makes of dripping coffee. To put it another way:
I love the smell o' coffee in the mornin'

I used to HATE coffee. I only developed a taste for it during the dark period 10 years ago, when I was struggling to give a damn about life, yet alone getting up for school in the morning.

I made myself a coffee yesterday that smelled like tobacco smoke. Didn't taste like it though, thankfully.

Because coffee is extremely bitter. Our noses can't smell the bitterness but our taste buds can taste it. That's why I usually drink tea with milk instead.

I do love coffee but I can't afford the really good stuff that tastes good taken black. So I have to buy the not-great stuff and have it "white".

I do at least buy fresh beans though, and grind them myself; I don't do "instant" coffee.

I suspect, though, that because I have over sensitive taste buds that don't like a lot of things other people find delicious, that even if I got the good quality coffee and drank it black, I would still experience it as tasting too bitter. I like my coffee milk-and-sugar style even though that is mocked by coffee purists.

As many other people here pointed out, good coffee is supposed to be delicious.

Bad coffee tastes bad. From all accounts, US citizens drink the worst coffee in the world. For one, Starbucks tastes of coffee percolated through underwear. Nowhere else coffee is served off cups resembling big buckets like those! That's not only bad coffee, that's a gallon of water and bad coffee.

On the other hand... maybe you just don't like it. As far as I'm concerned, unlike beer, coffee isn't an acquired taste. One is supposed to taste it and fall in love immediately. If that's not your case... maybe it's not for you.

Edit: Instant coffee is the worst! It'll give you an instant heartburn altogether.

Certain fancy coffees (espresso) literally smell like cat poop and taste harsh. I can usually tell how something will taste by the way it smells, but not always.

I don't agree that "US citizens drink the worst coffee in the world." You're only thinking in terms of Starbucks.

Yes that is an astronomically popular and successful American business.

But in my personal experience the Americans I personally knew were VERY picky about their coffee and they drank really good stuff when buying their own to make at home. My husband happened to be one of those people.

There are specialty coffee beans, the good stuff, widely available in US stores, there are even specialty stores. My husband used bring home the very best -- our budget really took a hit on those coffees.

I'll tell you who really DOES drink the worst coffee in the world --- BRITS. Brits drink mostly instant coffee and they think it's good.

Americans on an individual basis have the best coffee despite phenomenons like Starbucks.

Brits think a spoonful of freeze-dried Nescafe with boiled tap water dumped on it is delicious. . .

I like getting iced coffees at Starbucks with cream and sugar.

I don't like regular coffee very much but I like things that are coffee flavored like ice cream and Coffee crisp chocolate bars.

When I go to the Halloween dance I usually drink some of the coffee they serve because I think it will help me be more awake and alert for dancing and stuff.

I love coffee.Good beans that are fresh ground smell and taste great.
Weak cheap coffee is the worst and instant is just gross.

Well that really depends on the coffee, I don't like awful tasting coffee. Especially since I don't like to put cream, sugar and such in my coffee so it has to taste good by itself.