To ask you to choose which coffee machine (for someone who hates coffee!) and how to force myself to love coffee as top drs have told me I HAVE to drink it and lots of it

Ah this is interesting, so I guess caffeine tablets wouldn’t be the same at all then.
op, go to 3 different well recommended cafes for the quality of the coffee. Order a short black and a milky coffee from each. This might take a week. If you hate them all, no amount of quality machine is going to help you like coffee! So just make some halfway decent bean coffee, hold your nose and drink it, and save £100s. (I have a breville double boiler for decent coffee plus effective milk frothing, and a separate grinder. Takes up half the bench. Worth it for me, but not for you I’d say). what about coffee rubs on steak using the ground coffee? Some decent recipes out there…

im so sorry about your diagnosis.

Sorry you have been given such a hard time on here op

Have you tried iced coffee instead? That might be worth a try

Aeropress. About £30, makes the best coffee and a milk frother and you will still get change from £100. Or a Moka pot. Or a French press. Or a pour over.

Less faff, quick cleans, recycle the coffee grounds in compost, cheaper and don't take up huge amounts of counter space.

If anyone is still questioning the health benefits of coffee on here (not sure anybody is, but still) go on to any liver ward and you will find leaflets and posters aplenty recommending coffees alongside healthy diet, abstinence from alcohol etc.....

OP, instant coffee is just as beneficial as other forms, health wise, and tends to have a blander taste? I would just buy a good instant coffee - one of the "barista" ones in the tins - they are often on offer - and have that. Depending on other dietary recommendations, it will taste blander if you can mix it with full fat milk or even cream, and put some sugar in or maybe flavoured syrups (you can buy some specially for this purpose). Basically disguising the taste as much as you can.

Any "proper" coffee from a machine will taste much more life coffee, IYSWIM, and thus you will like it even less......

You could try a stove top espresso machine like in Italy. They are cheap and the coffee is good, if you don't leave it too long. They are are also intriguing the way they suddenly fountain when boiling. I love coffee but don't have a machine. In North London I find they silt up with limescale though that's probably just me. I do have a grinder to grind whole beans. I hope you do learn to love coffee. I think I probably did as a teen as I thought it was cool! I'd advise milk as black coffee can be a bit harsh.

Nespresso origional machines are pricy BUT lots of places inc Asda and at least one of the budget supermarkets (Aldi / Lidl) make pods for them.

Are you well enough to do a tour of local coffee shops and try a few of whatever is on the menu?

I get my coffee from our local farmers market. I only drink black coffee and just use a cafeteria rather than a posh machine.

Your kitchen sounds amazing btw.

If it's the flavour of the coffee you're not keen on, have you tried the syrups? Not a fan myself, but DD isn't a fan of hot coffee and enjoys an iced coffee with vanilla syrup.

Anecdotally your key word there
I was asking for peer-reviwed evidence
I am well aware of both the benefits and downsides of coffee

I have one of those stove top mokas (the Italian coffee pot). They're only about 10-15 quid, widely available in the UK nowadays (Lidl sell them sometimes), and make great espresso- They're what every Italian uses at home. Obviously they make strong coffee, but you could put loads of milk in it? (Barista oat milk is a good alternative to dairy).

Wishing you and your lovely boys the very best xx

You can buy packs of Rombout’s one pod filter coffee where you pour boiling water in to the pod. It’s strong but nice as coffee goes (don’t like coffee myself either) and I prefer it to the Tassimo machine coffee. Also much cheaper as you don’t need to buy a machine! The Tassimo one I find too sweet and the milk is mixed in. With the filters you add milk or cream or have it black.

Ah, see @Dreamskies already recommended the chocolate coffee beans. Yes, I first encountered them when I worked at Whittards over 30 years ago!

I’d just get a cafetière and some coffee.

https://amzn.to/3YfTtpz

Then you can play around with what coffee you dislike less. Some brands have a number strength in them for flavour or are described as ‘smooth’ etc and they taste less.

Great advice.
They are a cheap old fashioned pot that make the most delicious coffee, fresh and fragrant. I love Lavazzo beans too, freshly ground.

I am so sorry for that awful diagnosis.
Wishing you and your children the very best.

@CocoBellaSparkle I am so sorry for what you're going through. Hope you and your family are getting all the support you need.

This espresso, banana and almond smoothie is really good. Recipe says powdered espresso but I make with a shot. There are loads of other espresso smoothie recipes online. And have you thought about chocolate-covered espresso beans? Seriously addictive!

Have a look on FB Marketplace for coffee machines; I picked up a nearly new Nespresso machine for about £30. And the Dualit EcoPress is a good tool for squishing the coffee out of the pods so that they can be rinsed and put in with normal recycling.

Ooh yes these are nice

I'd go for a Velvetiser and a mokka pot instead. Do your hot chocolate and then add some coffee too it. Mokka coffee is espresso so you don't need too much. When you develop a taste, just use the Velvetiser to froth milk. Also look into flavoured coffees.

And this thread is really interesting, so thank you for that. I had never considered coffee to be particularly beneficial.

I am really, really sorry about your diagnosis OP
I'm like you, I want to like coffee, but just don't!

Just buy a cafetière and experiment with different types of beans.

New to who?

You?

Ive heard of coffee being recommended for various conditions, anecdotally because Ive never had it said directly to me

Its not much different to coming away from the doctor and being told to increase fibre, or increase your intake of this and that.

I dont know why there is so much confusion about why OP has been told this.

OP doesnt like to have coffee, you might not like things you're advised to increase consumption of. Like another poster says, OP can prepare an espresso and drink it down in one shot the same way I have to do with various medicines. Horrible, but its gone in one gulp

I'm very sorry to hear this. May I suggest the beige Krups Nespresso Inissia machine (currently £136 on Amazon). Get some coffee pods from Grind (they do a few nice hazelnut ones) and add a good spoonful of sugar if you can to sweeten the coffee if you must. As a previous poster said, down it like a shot of medicine. You could pour over ice in this weather too, add a dash of cream to make it tolerable. Wishing you well in the circumstances x

You could try an Aeropress as they're cheap and small and make good coffee. Then mix it with cocoa for a mocha to get used to the taste?

I'm surprised dairy has been recommended as animal protein is linked to cancer growth.

What about eating chocolate coated coffee beans?

I cannot stand drinking coffee. There’s a good few things I’ve forced myself to like, but coffee just isn’t one of them. So bitter, so disgusting. However I can eat coffee flavoured things, including chocolate coated beans. I find it more palatable as a food than a drink. It’s also over with faster and doesn’t knock me sick like trying to drink a whole cup of it.

Used to be able to get them from whittards and also seen them in health food shops. The chocolate adds a sweetness to counter the bitter coffee.

I prefer filter coffee. If you fancy trying it out, You can get really beautiful filter coffee machines like a MoccaMaster but I’d suggest you get one of the ceramic filter drips like the “Hario V60” to try it out first before investing in a machine. They are between £10-£20 and come in lots of lovely colours.

my one tip would be to make sure you’re not using boiling water, let the water cool a bit once boiled or stop the kettle boiling before it gets to full temperature. Using boiling water on coffee burns the coffee grounds and it doesn’t taste as good. Same goes for instant coffee.

I agree with PP that there are different coffees out there so do try a few different ones if you can. I personally really like Peruvian and Columbian coffees but there are so many out there!

happy tasting!