I’m going to hate myself for saying this and sounding like such a coffee snob, but: if coffee tastes bad to you, there’s a decent chance you just haven’t had a good cup of coffee.

I only say this because I used to hate coffee too, only having had Starbucks or crappy supermarket coffee made at home. But then I had a cup of coffee at a very good restaurant and it was so delicious. It was just black coffee, good beans prepared right.

Turns out I just prefer light to medium roasts and found the right brewing times and temps that I like best. Every time I have Starbucks it still tastes awful.

There are actually a whole bunch of good medium to dark roasts out there, but third wave coffee is hip and has been for a while.

If you like Starbucks beans, you'd probably like a better dark roast. Try Lavazza. Coffee snobs will look down on it, but they're highly consistent like Starbucks while offering more variety and more flavor. Lavazza Super Crema makes a pretty nice espresso and is cheap relative to high-end coffees.