History Main / BadToTheLastDrop

The trope name is an allusion to the Maxwell House slogan "Good to the Last Drop". It often occurs in settings in the military or wartime, particularly in [[BleakBorderBase faraway postings]] or at sea, or, in science fiction, in space. The unpleasant coffee is often described in colorful and unflattering language (mud, tar,...).

To some extent, even good coffee is an acquired taste; many people load it up with cream and sugar when they first start drinking coffee for this reason. That's not this trope. This is when the stuff's so awful that if the drinker wasn't in the midst of a MustHaveCaffeine moment, it would be thrown out.

To some extent, even good coffee is an acquired taste; many people load it up with cream and sugar when they first start drinking coffee for this reason. That's not this trope. This is when the stuff's so awful that if the drinker wasn't in the midst of a MustHaveCaffeine moment, it would be thrown out. Some examples in this trope are for the other important morning beverage, tea.

While this trope most commonly features coffee, any bad non-alcoholic drink can go here. Bad alcoholic drinks should see the SisterTrope, ATankardOfMooseUrine. KlatchianCoffee may overlap with this, or simply be another Sister Trope. Descriptions of such beverages may be some variant of "ItTastesLikeFeet."

Good coffee can be a connoisseur's delight, while bad coffee is [[TitleDrop Bad to the Last]] [[StealthPun Drop]]. It might be very cheap, very poorly brewed, or very stale coffee, or it can be ersatz substitutes for coffee that just don't make the grade.

The trope name is an allusion to the Maxwell House slogan "Good to the Last Drop". It often occurs in settings in the military or wartime , particularly in [[BleakBorderBase faraway postings]], or, in science fiction, in space. The unpleasant coffee is often described in colorful and unflattering language.

To some extent, even good coffee is an acquired taste; many people load it up with cream and sugar when they first start drinking coffee for this reason. That's not this trope. This is when the stuff's so awful that if the drinker wasn't in the midst of a MustHaveCaffeine moment, it would be thrown out.

The trope name is an allusion to the Maxwell House slogan "Good to the Last Drop".

* ''TableTopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'': In the ''TabletopGame/ForgottenRealms'' setting, poor quality [[CallARabbitASmeerp kaeth]] is known in the southern Sword Coast as ''ortulag'', a word that roughly translates to "[[{{Squick}} chamber pot rinse warmed over]]".

* One of Jesse [=McCree's=] lines in ''VideoGame/{{Overwatch}}'' at the start of a match in the Route 66 map while the team is in a spawn point that is a diner is "Yeah, I wouldn't drink the coffee. Always tasted like boiled dirt."

* ''Film/OlsenBanden over alle bjerge'' features Egon replacing the beers of some security guards with raspberry lemonade. The guards find it so awful that they quit their job over it.

* ''ComicBook/LuckyLuke'': One CampCook's coffee recipe For Men involves grounds, water, and a horseshoe. Put all three ingredients in the pot, and add grounds until the horseshoe stops sinking.

* Polish WW1 soldier song "Ciężkie czasy legionera" implies this with the following verse:

* ''Literature/HoratioHornblower'' suffers from the problem of very finite coffee supplies at sea. Usually, what he gets to drink is burnt bread and hot water.

* ''Series/BackInTimeForDinner'' and the follow-up ''Further Back in Time for Dinner'' has an Australian suburban family recreating life as it was lived in past decades, with a particular focus on food. In the 1910s--the decade coffee started catching on in Australia--the mother prepared coffee following a recipe from a period cookbook. It involved cracking a whole egg, including the shell, into the pot and adding a pinch of salt to the water. The reactions of the family members who did not no what was in it when they take a sip is especially: especially the father, whose job involves supplying coffee to cafes.

* In ''VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorney'', the coffee that LethalChef Armstrong serves is, in [[MustHaveCaffeine coffee addict]] Godot's words: [[BileFascination "worth a sip just for the experience."]] Just a single sip...
* In ''VideoGame/MaxPayne'', Max makes a stop during his one-man war on the mob at an [[GreasySpoon all-night diner]] where he drinks several cups of coffee that in his own words "tasted like engine oil."
* One of Jesse [=McCree's=] lines in ''VideoGame/{{Overwatch}}'' at the start of a match in the Route 66 map while the team is in a spawn point that is a diner is "Yeah, I wouldn't drink the coffee. Always tasted like boiled dirt."

* Kyoko in ''VideoGame/DigimonStoryCyberSleuth'' makes coffee with seaweed and red bean paste. Just one sip knocks the player character out cold.

* In [[http://sigeel.deviantart.com/art/49-taste-379577828 this]] page from ''Webcomic/BloodStain'', Elliot can barely drink Serge's coffee, but since she's a new employee she doesn't want to rock the boat, so she says that it's great.
** Elliot's not any better at making coffee. When she made some at her old job as a waitress, it made ''her boss' hair fall out''.
* In ''Webcomic/{{Freefall}}'', after Florence the [[UpliftedAnimal Bowman's Wolf]] expresses concern about coffee being possibly toxic to her, Dvorak [[http://freefall.purrsia.com/ff2700/fc02700.htm synthesizes a canine-safe substitute.]] It ''smells'' like a frightened rabbit, which is distinctly appealing to her wolf instincts, but the ''taste'' drove her to scald the taste off her tongue with regular coffee.
* In ''Webcomic/AwfulHospital'', the "Blackish Foam" [[http://www.bogleech.com/awfulhospital/651.html served]] by Joe [[spoiler:([[ReforgedIntoAMinion formerly known as Jay]])]] counts as coffee insofar as it's served at a cafe, and turns out to be exceptionally poisonous when applied to an open wound.
-->"...it smells like burnt tire rubber with just a hint of something like cold bacon fat. The only thing you're certain of is that this will never enter your mouth."
* In ''Webcomic/SchlockMercenary'', a particularly bad cup of coffee is described as tasting "like caffeine lost a knife fight with the color brown".

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* A spot for Skechers shoes has comic book character Too Much Coffee Man freaking out because he has no filters for his coffee maker. He uses a shoe instead. [[TastesLikeFeet The results are obvious]]; the taste of the coffee dubious.

* This is Ms Smith's reaction in ''Manga/MonsterMusume'' when she tries drinking a cup of the cheap instant coffee served at a police command center. On the other hand, she thinks that Kimihito's coffee is the best brew ever, which confuses the heck out of him because it's the cheap instant stuff.
* In ''Anime/PhantomQuestCorp'', Detective Karino works in the police's U Division, which deals with the "oddball" cases. As such, its budget is absolutely pathetic. Not only is the office is too small..but his chief also complains about the lousy quality of the powdered tea they get.
* ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventureStardustCrusaders'': A scene in the Anime shows Joseph Joestar and Mohammed Avdol sitting on the floor doing a tea ceremony. With all of his Anti-Japanese sentiment glory, Joesph decided to make instant coffee instead. As soon as he took a sip of his coffee, Joseph commented how Japanese coffee taste awful until Advol remined him that it was American coffee.

* ''ComicBook/{{Preacher}}'': When a [[JurisdictionFriction federal cop tells the state cop]] their coffee tastes like someone came in it, the state cop snarks back that they were so excited to finally get a 'real' cop that they just couldn't contain themselves.

* Another Creator/WarrenEllis-penned example, from his run in ''ComicBook/{{Excalibur}}'': there were a few lines indicating that Moira [=MacTaggert=]'s coffee was just awful (issue #88, in special, was a bit of a ragfest).
* ''ComicBook/LuckyLuke'': One CampCook's coffee recipe For Men involves grounds, water, and a horseshoe. Put all three ingredients in the pot, and add grounds until the horseshoe stops sinking.

* In ''Fanfic/OriginStory'', Alex Harris is a "definitive coffee snob" who usually enjoys a special Indonesian coffee blend that costs $35 a pound. In Chapter 30, she is drinking a cup of coffee she bought at a New York City deli while [[TheStakeout staking out]] a bad guy's job. She specifically remarks that she knows the coffee is Colombian because "it tastes like the oily mud the beans were grown in."
* In the ''[[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/11368588/1/Mountain-Murders Mountain Murders]]'' series of WWE alternate universe fics, Trina Conley is known at the Davis Police Department for her bad coffee.
* In the ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' ParodyFic "The Killer Dame", Captain Janeway has a HeroicBSOD when she realises the only coffee available in the World War Two holodeck program is ersatz coffee made from crushed acorns.

* In ''Film/Godzilla1998'', the lead French investigator finds the New York coffee his assistant gives him to be awful. [[MustHaveCaffeine He still drinks it]].
* ''Film/TheThreeStooges'' sketch "Of Cash and Hash" has the Stooges running a cafe with their usual screwing-up. One of their customers complains that the coffee tastes like paint, so Shemp drinks from the mug to see what's wrong. He grimaces, then says, "It ''is'' paint." He grabs another coffee mug. "''That's'' the coffee." When Shemp drinks from it and makes an even worse face. He goes back to the cup of paint: "''This'' is better."

* A running gag in ''Film/MenInBlack3'' has Agent K lamenting every morning that "This coffee tastes like dirt", to which Agent J (in the present) or Agent O (in the past) would reply, "It should, it was just [[{{Pun}} ground]] this morning." [[spoiler:This joke clues O in on the fact that J actually knew K, after K was killed in the past by Boris the Animal.]]

* ''Film/{{Harper}}'' begins by showing the low-rent life of Paul Newman's title detective character as he wakes up. He sees he's out of coffee, so he uses yesterday's grounds in a filter pulled from the trash. He doesn't like the result.

* In ''Literature/ThePolarExpress'' the hobo offers the protagonist a "cup of joe", he gags on it, then the hobo takes his socks out of the coffee pot.
* In ''Film/LoveFindsAndyHardy'', older sister Marian, charged with fixing the meals when mother Emily is away tending to her own ill mother, makes atrocious coffee. Andy and the judge, seeking not to hurt her feelings, pronounce it excellent. This almost causes the new cook to quit when she comes to work, tries Marian's coffee, and pronounces it "mud."

* In {{Film/Gremlins}} one of Mr. Peltzer's inventions (which always work great at first) is a coffee machine that, when used, dispenses brown sludge with the consistency of hot tar.
-->'''Mrs. Peltzer:''' I don't think we can drink this...

* In ''Literature/ABoyMadeOfBlocks'', Alex drinks coffee at the ''VideoGame/{{Minecraft}}'' competition that tastes like it was made with unfiltered Thames water.
* Ordinarily, [[Literature/AubreyMaturin Captain Jack Aubrey (RN) and Dr. Stephen Maturin]] are connoisseurs of "the right Mocha." However, months at sea sometimes lead to misfortunes such as rat droppings infesting (and getting ground up with) the beans.
* ''Literature/LaszloHadronAndTheWargodsTomb'': At one point, Laszlo wakes himself up with a mug of a Navy Starfighter Corps blend called "fighter fuel". The first swig makes him grimace.

* ''Series/TheBeverlyHillbillies'': Possibly the first instance of this trope on a television series, as it pertains to coffee. Elly May was a LethalChef and her coffee was highly viscous and nigh indigestible.
* ''Series/GreenAcres'': Another early instance of this trope on a television series from producer Paul Henning. Eva Gabor's character, Lisa Douglas, was terrible at all things domestic and her coffee was no different. It would come out of the pot in a thick black sludge in many, many episodes much to her husband's dismay.
* A non-coffee example would be some of Mrs. Davis' concoctions on ''Series/OurMissBrooks''. Mrs. Davis' coffee was usually fine (the time she made "Bulgarian Coffee" notwithstanding). However, being a CordonBleughChef, Mrs. Davis sometimes makes horrid liquid (albeit non-alcoholic) drinks that are truly BadToTheLastDrop.

* One episode of ''Series/{{Kojak}}'' had an elderly woman come to the station to give a statement. While there she asked for a cup of coffee, and upon tasting it gently tells the detective interviewing her that it's absolutely terrible.

* In the sci-fi series ''Series/{{Starhunter}}'', Percy comments on how bad the coffee in her cup is. She is seen ''chewing'' it.
* Stanley in ''Series/RizzoliAndIsles'' makes really bad coffee. Jane accuses him of putting his sweat socks in the coffee maker.
* A couple of examples from ''Series/{{Blackadder}}'':
** In Blackadder the Third'', the [[DeadpanSnarker title character]] gives one of his circuitous insults to Mrs Miggins, owner of the local coffee shop.
---> A cup of your best hot water with brown grit in it - unless, of course, by some miracle, your coffee shop has started selling coffee.
** In ''Blackadder Goes Forth'', Captain Blackadder asks Private Baldrick to make coffee, asking if it can taste "a little less like mud this time". Baldrick answers that this is difficult, as it ''is'' mud -- due to shortages on the front line, they ran out of real ingredients years ago, so in typical Baldrick style he's been using mud as a coffee substitute, in addition to which he is also using ersatz milk (phlegm) and ersatz sugar (dandruff). Blackadder is happy to let Baldrick make a mug of this for Captain Darling, but [[EveryoneHasStandards even he draws the line]] when the latter asks for some of "that brown stuff you sprinkle on the top".

* On ''Series/GimmeABreak'', Chief Kiniski was on a stakeout and his partner drank from the thermos of coffee he brought (which was made by one of the daughters). He asked if it was supposed to be coffee. Kiniski looks at it and says "I think so. Turpentine doesn't have grounds in it."

* ''Series/{{Crusade}}'': In ''Visitors From Down The Street'', Captain Gideon laments the poor quality of what passes for coffee available aboard starships (it was established on ''Crusade's'' predecessor ''Series/BabylonFive'' that real coffee is prohibitively expensive to get off-world). He goes on to voice suspicions that they only caffeinate the stuff to mess with him, thus setting the ConspiracyTheorist tone for the episode.
* ''Series/MontyPythonsFlyingCircus'': "Conquistador coffee brings new meaning to the word 'vomit'." (It's a sales pitch.)
* ''Series/{{Angel}}'' had Angel Investigations' godawful coffee become something of a running gag since none of them could afford the good stuff.
-->'''Angel:''' I think my oesophagus is melting.
* Ellery's coffee in ''Series/ElleryQueen''. In one episode Ellery's father (who, it should be pointed out is a homicide detective and therefore used to bad coffee) takes one sip and pours his cup down the sink. After a moment's thought, he follows this by pouring the entire pot down the sink.
* ''Series/GeneralHospital'': Brenda serves Sonny coffee, which he declares to be "the worst coffee I have ever had in my life."
* ''Series/MidsomerMurders'': While drinking a cup of canteen coffee in "Down Among the Dead Men", Barnaby asks:
-->"Is this coffee or silt?"
* ''Series/Daredevil2015'': According to Foggy, Karen's coffee-brewing skills leave much to be desired:
-->'''Foggy Nelson:''' If we're gonna be Nancy Drewing together, I think a certain level of honesty is required.
-->'''Karen Page:''' What, you don't like my coffee?
-->'''Foggy Nelson:''' No. I hate it. ''[Karen can't help but stifle a laugh]'' I appreciate the effort, but the technique or lack thereof-
-->'''Karen Page:''' My god, you are such a dick!
-->'''Foggy Nelson:''' On occasion, some dickery might leak out. That doesn't mean I'm wrong.
-->'''Karen Page:''' Oooh. It means something.

* ''Series/KamenRiderBuild'': The coffee brewed by Soichi Isurugi, protagonist Sento's benefactor, is tragically bad -- especially since he ''owns a coffee shop''. In fact, the main characters would rather bring in canned vending machine coffee than drink Soichi's; on the other hand, since Build's secret lab is located under the shop, maybe it's a good thing that they don't get much business. [[spoiler:Eventually it's revealed that Soichi is possessed by an evil alien, who naturally doesn't understand (or care) what humans consider tasty. In the final episode, after the BigBad has been defeated, Sento discovers that the real Soichi's coffee is actually very good.]]
* On ''Series/SchittsCreek'' Johnny finally samples some of The Rosebud Motel's ''rocket fuel'' coffee and finds it disgusting. Stevie had warned him that nobody ever drinks it.
* In ''Series/TheHauntingOfBlyManor'' Dani Clayton, an American working as an au-pair in an English manor, cannot make tea, to the point that everyone in the house gives her a [=Flat No=] by the third or fourth time she offers. Her coffee also leaves much to be desired.
* In ''Series/TheExpanse'', coffee in The Belt and outer planets is so notoriously bad that the [[ConLang Lang Belta]] term for it is "owkwa kaka": shit water. When the main characters take control of a Martian corvette, [[MustHaveCaffeine Holden]] believes he has discovered the holy grail: a coffee maker stocked with bags of real Martian coffee.

* Cups of Coffee in ''VideoGame/{{Earthbound}}'' heal a piddling 12 [=HP=], making them worthless even in the beginning of the game where Bread Rolls and Hamburgers are readily available. That they're dropped by Scalding Coffee Cups, implying that you're drinking what was once an inexplicably living creature, [[{{Squick}} doesn't help either]]. The flavor text suggests that there's actually nothing wrong with the coffee itself, but that Ness and his friends don't like it because they are children:

--->'''Ronaldo:''' Guacola. It’s a soda that pays people to say they like it, [[SarcasmMode so you know it’s good]].
* ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'': [[TrademarkFavoriteDrink Good tea]] is one of Iroh's greatest passions, and he's very particular about it. Nevertheless, when his nephew Zuko tries to brew him a pot as a kind gesture, he happily drinks it, makes sure Zuko can't see him grimace, and surreptitiously dumps it out. He's much less subtle when he goes into a restaurant in Ba Sing Se that serves terrible tea, declaring that it's nothing but hot leaf juice.

* ''WesternAnimation/MonstersInc'' subverts this trope by showing a scene in which Waternoose turns the spigot on a "coffee" machine, and a thick sludge slowly oozes out of the machine. This is ''expected'' of Monsteropolis coffee (much as smelling bad which normally calls for the use of reodorants).

* ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'': [[SpotOfTea Good tea]] is one of Iroh's greatest passions, and he's very particular about it. Nevertheless, when his nephew Zuko tries to brew him a pot as a kind gesture, he happily drinks it, makes sure Zuko can't see him grimace, and surreptitiously dumps it out. He's much less subtle when he goes into a restaurant in Ba Sing Se that serves terrible tea, declaring that it's nothing but hot leaf juice.

* ''Series/{{Blackadder}} the Third'': Blackadder gives one of his circuitous insults to Mrs Miggins, owner of a coffee shoppe.
--> A cup of your best hot water with brown grit in it - unless, of course, by some miracle, your coffee shop has started selling coffee.
** An extended sequence in ''Blackadder Goes Forth'' has Baldrick explain just why his coffee is so awful; turns out the war means they ran out of real ingredients years ago, so in typical Baldrick style he's been using ersatz coffee (mud), ersatz milk (phlegm), and ersatz sugar (dandruff).

* ''WesternAnimation/MonstersInc'' subverts this trope by showing a scene in which Waternoose turns the spigot on a "coffee" machine, and a thick sludge slowly oozes out of the machine. This is ''expected'' of Monsteropolis coffee (much as smelling bad which normally calls for the use of odorants).