[morgan814]

While I certainly drink coffee for the caffeine, black coffee is 100% my preference. Sugar in coffee tastes absolutely horrid to me. Milk is fine but it doesn’t do much for me.

People taste things differently and it’s at least partly genetic. See TAS2R38 for example [0]. It’s fascinating how we all perceive the world a little differently.

Years ago, long before I was of age, a science museum had a little demo on this (not sure if it was related to the aforementioned gene or not) using strips of paper with some chemical on it. Some people were pretty grossed out by the flavor. It didn’t bother other people at all, including myself.

On the flip side of things I’m highly sensitive to sweetness and find anything other than the smallest amounts to be off putting.

[0] https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6949464/