Critique from a regular at my local coffee shop made me stop using brown sugar in my cold brew

They said it was masking the actual bean flavor so I switched to simple syrup last month and now I actually taste the notes the roaster wrote on the bag, has anyone else had someone call them out like that and realized they were right?

3 comments

3 Comments

kimw576h ago

Hold on, @ryan793 I gotta push back on that a little bit. Coffee people taste notes because they actually taste them, not to show off, you know? If someone is drinking a single origin Ethiopian roast that's supposed to have blueberry and floral notes, and they're drowning it in brown sugar, they are literally missing the whole point of paying extra for that bean. That regular probably saved them money in the long run too since they can now buy cheaper beans if they're just gonna sugar bomb it anyway. I've seen people at my shop spend six bucks on a special pour-over then dump two Splendas in it and it genuinely made me wince. It's not about being a snob, it's about matching your coffee to your taste so you don't waste your money or miss out on what you're actually buying.

sean_barnes2414h ago

...and that's exactly why I've been scared to try flavored syrups for years. I used to dump a ton of cinnamon and honey into my pour-over until my buddy said it smelled like a pumpkin spice candle more than coffee. Took me a minute to admit he was right, but now I just drink it black and pretend I know what "berry notes" taste like when really I'm just guessing. It's humbling when someone calls out your coffee crutch like that but probably for the best.

ryan79312h ago

Oh come on, it's really not that deep. You're drinking coffee, not evaluating a wine for a Michelin star restaurant. If brown sugar made your cold brew taste good to you, who cares what some coffee shop regular thinks? Life's too short to let some stranger's opinion dictate how you enjoy your morning caffeine fix. I say drink it however you like it and ignore the coffee snobs.