I caught the Starbucks bug a while ago and used to buy my overpriced cup of regular/house blend coffee + half & half + a little sugar.  I had to roll my eyes and feel like I was enabling some barrista tyrant to get their pinched-face little scold on when they would act like they didn't comprehend what 'I'd like a large coffee, please' meant when I tried to order - forcing me to squint & scan the overhead menu for the translation of 'large cup of coffee' in their pretentious asshole cant to please the coffee nomenclature nazis.  All of their foofy-doofy fancy cream & syrup drenched steam fluffed gurgling neologism nonsense seemed like an elaborate scheme to force their customers into participating in some insipid and embarrassing 'theater' - like the designated schmuck in the audience of an insult comic.  I am sure there are people who pride themselves on their full knowledge of Starbuck-talk and their facility at placing a tortuous coffee drink order of dazzling complexity - those people are douchebags.

After a while I realized that the constant rotation of the 'house blend' meant I never knew what my coffee would taste like and so on top of the insult of having to play the silly-time mouthful of idiotic words game with the barista I would also be rewarded with a shitty tasting cup of coffee - well, fuck that.  Starbuck's is a last resort - only in an emergency coffee solution for me now.

Dunkin Donuts sometimes had GREAT coffee and sometimes it was burnt up nasty garbage because workers at many Dunkin Donuts could give a rats ass about quality control (I suspected their manager would tell them to combine 'old ' coffee into new pots so as not to let it go to waste = horrid taste)- so they too are branded with the label of 'untrustworthy' in my coffee universe.  Not even in an emergency will I risk another cup of excreble swill from Dunkins.

I have found that 7-11 in the morning rush hours is a safe bet for a drinkable cup of coffee.  They drip brew with several pots going at once and a busy store will have such a high turnover that you are bound to get some that is less than 10 minutes old - more likely you get it 'just brewed' and they have all the coffee 'fixins' you could want if you are feeling fancy.
You might get stuck in line behind the chatty guy buying cigarettes and 20$ worth of scratch off & lotto tickets with you having to stare interminably at those plastic wrapped crustless PBJ sandwiches with the crimped edges (seriously WTF? - that is appetizing?) on the counter next to the Dale Earnhardt lighters and the 'crack in a bottle' energy potion display - but the coffee will be fit for consumption.

Or you can follow the advice of another poster and brew your own at home - be the master of your coffee fate.

"...when theft and high crime becomes obscenely obvious to even the blindest beer sucking idiot, it is always the Republicans who are in office." -- Joe Bageant

I used to work with a co-worker who had a standing order for Gevalia coffee, and I just looked up the price -- $15/lb.  I have one packet of it still on the shelf, and it will probably sit there forever.  Might be useful in an emergency, but I doubt it.  I got it as part of a gift-basket some time ago.  Whole coffee beans?  $5/lb, and if you look around, you can probably do even better.  

I must admit, I still have a Dunkin' Donuts coffee mug, but only because my old friend Indravadan Patel owned the store and gave it to me.  Their coffee is strictly second-rate.  

I do like McDonalds coffee.  IIRC, it is/was a blend of coffee and chicory.  At any rate, a cup of that and a sausage, egg, & cheese McMuffin, and I'm happy as a pig in s**t.  

there's only one way to find out...

Helps with my ADD.  If I am caffeine-free, i have a hard time listening to other people talk, I have to make a very serious effort to keep my attention from jumping off somewhere else.  A jolt of caffeine is invaluable in helping me listen and respond on point.

...and, quite frankly, I can't poo without it.

Am I a great person? Hell no - by most metrics I'm pretty much an asshole. -TSlothrop

...than to make it in a percolator. Percolators recirculate the coffee through the grounds over and over and over again, which inevitably leads to over-extraction and that bitter taste that is more or less inevitable with percolators. People have mistaken that for "strong" (and arguably percolator coffee probably does have more caffeine, since you're extracting so much from the grounds), but that doesn't make it good. For your average joe, the main things you can do to have a good cup of coffee each morning are to buy a drip coffee maker with a thermal carafe (not one with a plate warmer and a glass carafe - that just cooks your coffee), buy a decent burr grinder and grind your beans fresh (which means you shouldn't buy beans in bulk and let them sit for months - buy smaller bags more often), and clean your coffee pot every month or so (or more often, depending on how much coffee you drink). Those are the best, easiest things that you can do to give you a good cup on a consistent basis.

"No better way to ruin a good cup of coffee than to make it in a percolator"

I knew I was going to be in the minority here, but that's the way I've always enjoyed it.  I do use filters, which probably reduce the amount of bitter acids.  My little (4-cup) Farberware percolator will make coffee in four minutes, so I don't think it gets regurgitated too much.  Besides, a percolator is the only way you're going to make coffee over a campfire.  

One hint to anyone who wants to try a percolator -- always start with cold water, or it's not going to work.

I do agree with you, the burr-ground, beans are my favorites, particularly 100% Columbian.  I've kept them in a air-tight jar for months, and they still made a decent cup of coffee.  Pre-ground coffee is something that I haven't used for many years.

Flavored coffees have never appealed to me.  I like my cup-o-joe straight-up.  

there's only one way to find out...

I've never liked the taste and caffeine and me don't mix well. However, my wife is a stone coffee junky. Because of my love and devotion to her and out of consideration for her taste buds, I buy 100% Kona coffee for her. It's pricey as hell (a subject of another thread but it fits better here) but you can order it online or, as I did recently, give a buddy some bucks to pick up a consignment while they were in Hawaii. I repeat, that's 100% Kona and not that Kona blend available in most supermarkets.

She claims it's to die for and there's nothing quite like it in the wide world of java.

Illegitimi non carborundum.

I know I'll probably sound like a douche for this, but:

I don't drink coffee. I sometimes drink coffee-related products but never in the morning. I've got to thinking that if I need a pick-me-up in the morning, that means I didn't sleep well or long enough the night before. Which means I should go to bed a bit earlier tonight. I don't believe the human body needs an artificial boost or a kick-start. I try to eat healthy stuff in the morning - fruit, bran/hi-fibre, whole grains, fresh juices... they do me just fine.

When I like coffee is for dessert, after a nice meal in a restaurant (I don't have a coffee-maker at home). Or if I'm at home, tea. Herbals, non-caffeinated stuff that I can relax with.

I'm not sure how people get to a place where they need that many stimulants in a day...

Espresso coffee is nowhere near as strong as percolated, or even drip coffee.

I literally can't stomach percolated coffee anymore...I really enjoy drinking it, but for some reason my body can't handle it.

So I start every day with a short double Americano, and that usually does me for the day.

I have a modest Breville 800 espresso machine.  I buy Peet's Major Dickason's or Garuda blends - a half pound, ground at the store and stored in a ceramic Peet's container.

When I'm at Peet's I always take a raincheck card instead of the free coffee they offer when you buy beans.  I give the free coffee cards to homeless folks.

If I can't make it to a Peet's store, we'll pick up a can of Illy coffee.

My morning coffee wouldn't be my morning coffee without some sourdough toast and -ideally - homemade jam or marmalade.  Add the Jumble in the morning paper, and I'm ready to face the world.

Probably more than you wanted to know about me, but there ya go!