History Main / RealMenTakeItBlack

[[caption-width-right:350:....oh, okay, then I'll have a [[RealMenWearPink pumpkin spice latte with sprinkles please]]]]

[[caption-width-right:350:[[....oh, okay, then I'll have a [[RealMenWearPink pumpkin spice latte with sprinkles please]]]]

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[[quoteright:350:[[Webcomic/{{Hiimdaisy}} https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/blackcoffee4.png]]]]

* Current or former military personnel often take their coffee black. Procurement tends to buy the cheapest, cruddiest coffee possible so the cream and sugar tend to run out fast (alternatively: [[AcceptableProfessionalTargets the officers stole it all]]), which means soldiers, sailors, and airmen tend to get used to black coffee and stay with the habit after mustering out. Plus, depending on how busy you are, black coffee is just faster. Besides, it's not like sugar and cream will make bad coffee taste good.

This is a SubTrope of DrinkBasedCharacterization with an [[RatedMForManly extra shot of manliness]]. Also see KlatchianCoffee, which explores the extremity of the coffee itself and its uses (e.g. a G-rated MushroomSamba or a hangover cure).

** ''VideoGame/{{Persona 3}}'' : Ken Amada says even he drinks coffee black in a random optional conversation you can have with him (which you can even joke you like it with hot sauce). Ken is also 10 years old.
** ''VideoGame/{{Persona 4}}:'' There is a scene where Ryotaro Dojima asks the player how he wants his coffee:

** Subverted in ''VideoGame/Persona5''. Ryuji, the most overtly masculine of the protagonists, recoils when he gets a sip of Sojiro's black coffee, which the flamboyant Yusuke and supermodel Ann enjoy. He has to wash the taste out of his mouth with iced cola. Morgana chastises him for having a child's tongue.

* Ringabel from ''VideoGame/BravelyDefault'' is a flamboyant AgentPeacock, yet is the only member of the party who likes their coffee black. On the antagonists' side, there's Alternis Dim, who, being a [[BlackKnight Dark Knight]], naturally likes his coffee to be as dark as he is. [[spoiler:This is one of many hints that [[IdentityAmnesia they're actually]] [[AlternateSelf the same person]]]].
* According to his profile, Hawke in ''[[VideoGame/NintendoWars Advance Wars]]'' likes his coffee black.
* ''VideoGame/AnimalCrossing:''
** Discussed in ''Wild World''. A "[[ManChild lazy]]" villager will sometimes say "Is it true that "real men" like bitter coffee? I guess I'm just a regular guy then, 'cause I like my coffee [[SweetTooth light and sweet]]."
** Subverted in ''New Leaf''. You can work part-time at the local café. It turns out some of the manliest villagers like their coffee sweet and some of the girliest are fond of black.

Compare RealMenHateSugar, the direct alternative to this. See also RealMenEatMeat, its culinary cousin, and AgeStereotypicalFood.

Coffee, perhaps with the descriptor of [[PurpleProse "black as night" or "black as a witch's heart"]], is a very bitter drink on its own. Having a character drink it undiluted shows that they are "tough" enough to enjoy it. Milk and sugar weaken the pure coffee flavor too much for this character, and thus the trope only gets downplayed when a character does exactly that.

* ''Film/{{Airplane}}:'' "I like my coffee black. [[JungleFever Like my men.]]" [[FromTheMouthsOfBabes Spoken by a six-year-old girl]] to the boy who sits next to her (for laughs, obviously.)

* ''Film/{{Airplane}}:'' "I like my coffee black. Like my men." [[FromTheMouthsOfBabes Spoken by a six-year-old girl]] to the boy who sits next to her (for laughs, obviously.)

** Subverted in ''New Leaf''. You can work part-time at the local cafe. It turns out some of the manliest villagers like their coffee sweet and some of the girliest are fond of black.

* Kyle Hyde in ''VisualNovel/LastWindow'', the sequel to ''VisualNovel/HotelDuskRoom215''. Another cop example, Kyle likes to drink his coffee black, at least shown in ''Last Window'' at the cafe.

** ''VideoGame/{{Persona 3}}'' : Ken Amada says even he drinks coffee black in a random optional conversation you can have with him (which you can even joke you like it with hot sauce) .

* Literature/JamesBond, in contrast to [[SpotOfTea most of his fellow-Brits]], ''hates'' tea, and takes his coffee black. When at home, he (or rather, his housekeeper) makes it in a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemex_Coffeemaker Chemex Coffeemaker]].

* In the Franchise/JamesBond books Bond- unlike almost [[SpotOfTea every other British person in the universe]]- ''hates'' tea, preferring black coffee.

* Parodied during one of the ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog'' [[WebOriginal/SonicTheHedgehogTwitter Twitter Takeover's]]. Shadow is so hardcore that he eats coffee beans.

->"''There's no such thing as strong coffee, just weak people''."

* Played with on ''Series/{{Frasier}}''. Martin, a reatired cop, usually takes his coffee this way in contrast to his sons' more elaborate orders. Niles in particular makes ''very'' specific requests such as specifying how thick he wants the foam to be. Frasier himself tends to switch between the two extremes and on at least one occasion specifically ordered his coffee plain and black after getting annoyed with how long Niles was taking to order his drink.

* In ''Discworld/GuardsGuards'', Vimes takes his coffee black. He tries to order it "black as a moonless night", but the owner picks apart the metaphor until Vimes finally settles for "a moonless night as black as that coffee."

* According to the Wrestling/UltimateWarrior, Macho Man Wrestling/RandySavage drank over a gallon of black coffee every day. With multiple gallons before a big match.