My coffee journey began when Grandma came to live with me and she would give me warm, sweet coffee poured over something like a cornmeal mush for breakfast (but only if Mom wasn't looking). Eventually I moved to just drinking percolated coffee with milk and sugar (my Mom would put egg shells in the basket with the ground coffee). I never liked instant, though I would drink it in a pinch. When we got married, we started with the percolator and then moved to a drip machine. We spent about 20 years making our own lattes in the morning (raspberry chocolate coffee in the espresso machine was our favorite when we could get it). Then gerds hit me, but I had to have my morning coffee -- I found Dunkin Doughnuts coffee caused the fewest problems and I brew both caffeinated and decaf. Then we discovered the Trader Joe's cold press for iced coffee - I add 2 ounces to an 18 ounce cup and fill the rest with milk and it doesn't seem cause me problems if I have it before noon.
I have to say that I drink my coffee with no sugar and it is a light tan -- DH likes a spash of chocolate milk in his. I normally drink decaf tea with honey in the afternoon but starting the day without caffeinated coffee is just not possible (the GI doctor sighs a lot when I tell him about my morning drink).