@Weathergirl5 : I may have to try that!

@Bloom : It's so good!! Definitely give it a try. I like dark brown sugar.

@Bloom : Mine has dry creamer and 1 packet of sweet N low.

I didn't learn to drink coffee until after I left the Navy. Aboard ship I was assigned coffee duty...one time. I didn't know that the tap near the coffee pot was salt water. After that fiasco I was never asked to make coffee again. I drank a lot of coffee when I worked in radio. Black. Strong. Still need two large cups every morning to get my heart started.

@Weathergirl5 : An old way of sweetening coffee was to stir in a spoonful of blackstrap molasses. It's good, though my standard is with half-and-half, no sweetener.

@otto : What was the salt water tap used for? Seems like the kind of thing that should have a different color/shape handle on it...Early shift, for the radio? I did a 4am to 7am shift on college radio one year but that was the extent of that.

@jjjj : I have tried that too! It does give it a different taste. I had to add extra sugar though. The molasses was not sweet enough.

@jjjj , there were salt water taps all over the ship. This was a WWII-vintage aircraft carrier. It took 400 gallons of fresh water every time a plane was launched. The ship's watermakers were ancient and couldn't keep up with demand. So, within a week of leaving port in the far Pacific, we'd be on saltwater routine. Saltwater for showering, saltwater for laundry, saltwater in the sinks in the "head." I don't remember the taps having special markings, but maybe they did. We normally stayed at sea for 30+ days. There's nothing like pulling on a pair of dungarees, recently laundered in saltwater. Saltwater was not required, however, for making coffee. That was my own innovation. Another "nicety" -- fresh water and jet fuel were stored in the same voids (tanks). Fresh water was drawn from the bottom, and jet fuel from the top. As the fresh water began to run out, the drinking water started tasting like kerosene.For several years I pulled a 6-10 AM on-air shift at stations in Madison and later in Cedar Rapids. When I was named Program Director, I switched to a 10-2 shift. , When our Chief Engineer left for a station in Des Moines, and I had to assume his duties, I stopped on-air work entirely. It wasn't long before I left broadcasting to make a natural transition to District Service Rep for a crane manufacturer.

@otto : Ah, that explains it! It wasn't 'til after your workplace was built that the military learned it would be better to actually design things to reduce the risk of human error. Little stuff like expensively trained pilots not splattering themselves by accidentally hitting the eject button, people not making salty coffee, etc. (I was correctly guessing salt water for washing and such, but was surprised a salt tap would be near stuff intended for consumption.)Program Director and Chief Engineer to district service rep, yep, perfect training! Probably fewer early mornings than the earlier radio work tho... I've never (yet) worked with cranes - closest is rigging equipment - but have a friend who grew up in Manitowac, so have had plenty of their cranes pointed out to me over the years.

@jjjj : And that District Service Rep gig was good training for my next career choice -- computer applications developer for a drilling company.

@HarleyRider : I also don't like coffee. Have you tried cacao? I get mine from criobru.com/

@NeverPayRetail : I've never tried it. Not sure I've even heard of it...

@HarleyRider : Let me know if the link doesn't work. You use a regular coffee press. They have several 20% off sales. I've never liked coffee, but love this stuff.

@NeverPayRetail : The link didn't work for me, but I was able to find my way. Interesting. I've eaten straight cocoa nibs before but can't really envision how chocolate-y vs generally "roast"-y or what it would tasted brewed. Do the various health benefits of the beans make it into the brew?