People get used to the oddest things. I am quite thoroughly convinced that if someone's mother made every pot of coffee with a tiny trace of detergent left in the pot, that child would grow up to go through life thinking that coffee made without that detergent taste in it was "missing something."
Coffee experts are universally agreed that percolators brew some of the worst coffee possible, making a thin, burnt, acrid and bitter tasting beverage compared to other coffee brewing methods, but they were the first "automatic" coffee makers, and they produce very hot coffee, which many people like. Give these people a much more balanced and fuller tasting but slightly cooler cup from a french press, the brewing method of choice for most professional coffee tasters, and the percolator fan will sigh and long for a "real" cup of coffee.
And about the only brew method worse for coffee than a percolator is those old blue enamel coffee pots in which coffee gets thoroughly boiled. They really do produce a "cup of mud."
Yuban was a premium coffee in its day... it was first sold in 1912 as Yuletide Banquet, referring to coffee roaster John Arbuckle's personal blend of special coffees for enjoyment on Christmas morning. And for a long time it was a better blend of coffee, but as a Kraft-owned brand it has gradually slipped into its current identity as an inexpensive and not terribly good blend of bulk South American coffees. And since then Starbucks and other premium coffee roasters have raised bar on what a good cup of coffee can be for the American public.
And of course instant coffees are optimized for convenience, not for taste, and yet people can get completely habituated to their taste in much the same way as the detergent laden pot does, to the point that they go through life thinking the taste of the instant coffee they drank back in college because it was the only kind of coffee they could make in their dorm room; or the percolator coffee they drank as newlyweds because somebody gave them a percolator for a wedding gift; or the nasty boiled coffee they made whilst horseback camping in the Rockies... in other words, the really not very good coffee they came to have a powerful sense-memory of and an emotional reaction to... that inherently lousy coffee from their past becomes to them the "best coffee in the world!"
You can see the same behavior in many other areas of life. Years ago I used to frequently see the same fellow having breakfast at Ships in LA. They had toasters on the tables and brought you bread so you could make your toast just the way you like it, "just like home." Over time i came to realize that he always double toasted his bread, and always burnt it. Once I was seated close enough to him to ask why he always burnt his toast, and he replied that it reminded him of home, because his mother always burnt it that way.
People get used to the oddest things.
P.S. I just remembered another funny experience... years ago, before the Starbucks experience changed American coffee habits, I attended an executive seminar in San Francisco, at which a deluxe coffee bar was offered to the attendees at breaks. In addition to espresso and cappuccino et al, they were pouring an expensive brewed coffee from one of the city's top roasters, a local favorite, which had just a touch of chicory in it, New Orleans style. I still vividly remember a delegate from New York angrily bellowing, for all to hear, "What's it take for a person to get a cup of REAL coffee around here, instead of this ****!?!"
I was hysterical.
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Here's one of my Dad's favorite Willy and Joe comics from WWII. Scoll down to "Run it up th' mountain agin, Joe. It ain't hot enough."
