Drew Needs Coffee Advice!

You might think, because I'm an afternoon radio DJ, that I don't drink coffee.  You would be wrong.  Lately, though, I've been facing my own little coffee conundrum.  Maybe you can help...

First, a little background.

Despite the fact that work starts in the second half of my day, life starts at about 8:30am.  That's when the dog jumps onto the bed and starts licking our faces, trying to get us up for his morning walk.  Once I've successfully dragged myself around the neighborhood with the dog, I'm more than ready for a morning pick-me-up.  So, naturally, I turn to coffee.  I'm usually pretty good about only having one cup a day...usually.

I haven't always been a coffee drinker, though.  Far from it, actually.

I was in high school when my friends started drinking coffee.  Suddenly, Starbucks was the standard social hangout, and I was the socially awkward kid who thought coffee was gross (I couldn't get past the bitterness).  I managed to fake my way through it most of the time, just ordering hot chocolate or chai tea instead.

In college, I still wasn't crazy about coffee.  Sometimes I'd grab a sugary blendy-ccino something-or-other between classes, mainly because it tasted nothing like actual coffee.  For the most part though, college was all about energy drinks for me; that is, until they started giving me heart palpitations.  Turns out physical pain can break a bad habit real quick!

It wasn't until I was living with my future wife that I gave coffee an honest chance.  Back in our pre-Keurig days, Robyn used to make an entire pot of coffee every morning; but she would only drink a cup or so.  So I figured, if I balanced the flavor with enough cream and sugar, I could probably stomach it.  At least I could keep us from wasting coffee...

...And then I was hooked.

But now you're probably asking, "If you put a ton of cream and sugar in your coffee, Drew, then why is there a picture of black coffee at the top of this post?"  Well, very observant blog-reader, it's because for the past year or so, I only drink my coffee black.

That's right.  I've gone from a non-coffee-drinker, to a hardcore coffee-drinker.

Now, I do have a point to all this coffee rambling, and here it is:

I started taking my coffee black because I was trying to lose weight for my wedding last year, and I was cutting back on sugar and dairy (along with whatever other weird chemicals they put in that stuff).  And even though I've become accustomed to drinking black coffee, I can't help but think there's a different, healthier way to make coffee taste better, that maybe I just haven't heard of yet.

So that's my question: How do you like your coffee?  Do you know of any healthier ways to flavor coffee?  Please let me know in the comments!  Thanks in advance!