espressme wrote:I may add molasses or sorghum . . .

Let's not overlook rendered pork products!

Pirate Cat Radio Cafe
Broadcasting free radio without a license from the FCC, this location, besides serving up quality programming has a peculiar pork-based coffee drink on the menu at its cafe location in the Mission District.
Address: 2781 21st St., San Francisco, CA 94110

The FCC allows micro FM 'Pirate' radio stations to operate as long as they do not interfere with licensed local FM stations. It may be Pirate to you, but is is legal. Within a small power output.

So take your rebel cause in small steps. Big brother is still watching. I dare you to say Obama sucks and see how long you stay on the air at Pirate Radio.

And what -- if anything -- does this have to do with a bacon cappuccino?

Thankfully, nothing.

i add raw sugar...sometimes in espresso, and all the time in milk drinks.

i like it because it doesn't fully dissolve and so the first few sips are basically unsweetened and the taste is sweeter and sweeter as the cup finishes...

Never at home. If it's bad enough to need sugar, I try to pull a better shot.

If I venture into a cafe and end up with a cup of dreck, I'll add sugar, and never make the mistake of going in there again.

At home I always add sugar to milk drinks. For some reason, I find it easier to detect the chocolate, caramel, and fruity notes this way.

I'm not a sugar person really, but I never add it to any kind of coffee.

I mainly drink espresso singles, mostly single origins - some of which are very sweet and creamy on their own. I couldn't imagine the Mexican I am drinking at the moment with added sugar.... it would be like drinking fudge....

Which of course might just be someone else's cup of tea

I like to add Chocolate syrup to my Cap. I think espresso is always bitter. I taste every shot I make to make sure it is good before adding it to the milk. I think espresso is always bitter. It is less bitter when it tastes a little sour. My PID has a precision of 1 deg. C. so if it is a little sour at -1 deg C and more bitter at +1, I usually adjust it to -1. When the shot is very good It has a bitter-sweet taste like cinnamon

mfasano wrote:I think espresso is always bitter.

For many, the term "bitter" invariably carries a negative connotation, but there's plenty of chocolates, beers, cheeses, and wines that would be uninteresting if they did not have a bitter component. When someone says "espresso is always bitter", I take that to mean its counter-balancing components like sweetness/acidity/saltiness are lacking.

For what it's worth, when I lived overseas, the espresso served at most bars was bitter, end of story. I added 1 to 1-1/2 cubes of sugar to make them drinkable. In my own kitchen, I cannot remember the last time I added sugar to espresso, though I don't have a moral objection to doing so (see Abe's The obsession with sweet espresso - a dogma in the making for extended discussion of this point).

I am always surprised people add sugar to "bad" espresso to make it palatable. To me, sugar will make "bad" espresso simply bad espresso with some sugar, but no more palatable. The only thing that can make bad espresso more palatable for me is milk.