Reducing sugar in black coffee - help!

[FrodoBiggins]

I've always drunk black coffee with one sugar, it's my favourite drink by a mile. Have about 8 a day (!)

But I have rubbish teeth and also might need to lose a few kg, so want to reduce/quit the sugar. Loads of people told me that if you gradually reduce to none, you'll get used to it and coffee with sugar will taste horrible and too sweet.

I have been trying with half a sugar but it just tastes crap. Has anyone successfully quit and how did you do it? How long till it tastes nice again?

Oh yeah I can definitely 'handle' it without. If someone else makes me one I often just have it black with nothing to save faff but I just don't like it anywhere near as much, and coffee is a big pleasure for me!

Thanks for all the suggestions I think I'm going to work through them all!

Try to drink really good coffee and appreciate the flavours . With sugar it’s just , well sweet!

I cut down from 2 big heaped sugars to zero sugar by reducing it gradually. But, it does need to be very gradual.

Decide on your sugar level, keep going with it for a week then reduce it by about a fifth. Do another week, then another 5th. Over 5 weeks or so, that's you dropped a whole teaspoon. If you struggle, keep it at that level for 2 weeks then try again.

But I like it more with sugar as explained above 😂

Yes this is supposed to be better for teeth - I have been having it in my milky coffee, then gradually cut down.

I have also tried cacao instead of coffee - now that is really bitter without sugar 😁

Well you’re beyond help ! 😂

I use sugar free vanilla (just a teeny bit like two drops)

I really like sugar in my coffee and usually hate sweeteners...but I recently discovered brown sugar style sweeteners.. they are really good and don't taste so synthetic.

I use fruit juice which I know sounds nuts but coffee soda is very popular in Asia.

I also use monkfruit - grew up drinking it in boiled drink form almost every week as a health tonic thing back home, was pleasantly surprised upon googling sugar alternatives to find out it's some kind of hippie diabetic friendly low GI all natural sugar alternative in the West. It's super sweet but all natural and I've loved the taste since I was a child.

I just went cold turkey with sugar in tea and now can’t drink it with.

anyway maybe everyday measure out 8 tsps of sugar a day into a bowl and add to it all weeek to just visualise how much sugar you are putting in your body a week…

Sugar is natural too. It’s all turned into glucose in the body so you may as well have sugar if you’re adding those things.

Like PP's have said, the quality of the coffee makes a big difference. I really like Caravan's No Boundaries. Also Quarter Horse Decaf. I usually mix both together as quite sensitive to caffeine.

Also, I've tried various ways of brewing and the least bitter I found is the Italian stove-top moka pot (just check the size as DP was inadvertently drinking 4 x espressos in one go as he didn't realise how much it makes lol).

Are we really having this conversation? Do I really have to explain this to you? I hope nutritional literacy is not that low in the UK. Yes, monkfruit contains sugar. There's a difference between that (very low GI) and refined white sugar. In fact the main source of sugar (sugarcane) was what I grew up on too in my country. It's obviously way healthier.

Ha ha omg bet they were buzzing

I drink my coffee black without sugar but I'm not keen on bitterness so I use Monsoon Malabar beans as I get a lot of flavour without bitterness. I buy from a roastery near me in Ireland but there were definitely small companies that sold it when I lived in the UK, I can't remember who I bought from then but there was a choice of providers.

It could be that the quality of your coffee means that the sugar is the only thing making it palatable. The major coffee chains use sugar and milk to mask bitterness and disguise poor quality beans (usually burnt for what they call consistency).

I don't have any refined/extracted sugars on a day to day basis. I drink my coffee black, and I can't afford the good stuff, so my coffee is not very good quality. Sometimes I drink my coffee 'through' a piece of dried fig in my mouth and that makes it a lot more palatable. Some spices, such as cinnamon, will give the illusion of sweetness too.

You could try a cold brew method and heat up to desired temperature afterwards. Not as much bitterness is extracted under low temperatures. It'll require a bit of trial and error.

My last suggestion would be to try a replacement for coffee such as Yerba Mate, chicory, teeccino etc. The unsweetened flavour may agree with you more.

I went from drinking coffee with milk and 2 sugars to straight black, I just swapped, was a bit odd for first few days but you soon adjust

What coffee are you having? If I'm drinking good quality filter or machine coffee then I never put sugar in it. If its instant then I've changed to 2 sweetex tablets (I hate the powder). If I'm having a latte or flat white then I add 1 brown sugar. I'd play around with some sweetner tablets as they do taste different.

Usually illy ground at home (I have an espresso machine) and lavazza or illy from a bean to cup machine at work

Oh interesting, I do usual have brown sugar so I might need to try this!