It's nice to find a common ground with you. I too like my coffee black.
When in my late teens and started drinking coffee I found that it tasted horrible every way, black, sweet, creamed and sweet/creamed. I finally settled on black because none of the alternatives tasted any better. I don't really know why I kept drinking it except maybe it's the classic energy drink that too commonly today is manifested with adulterated products like Red Bull.
To this day I'm glad I settled on black coffee because I don't have to mess with it. For the same reason I like iced tea with just a squeeze of lemon. Minimalist...
I drink one big black 8-10 oz. coffee every day upon arising, and that's enough for me to keep me going throughout the day until my momentum carries me. I love my fresh ground from Colombian bean every day.
I haven't made sun tea in a long time. It's something I should return to soon. It's solar powered!
I never said anything about liking coffee, black or not. I was simply saying, I can understand the people that like that slight bit of bitter.
I have only drank coffee regularly when I lived in Holland, and the coffee there was a variety/prepared the way, of which you could stand a spoon in. I never futzed with milk/dairy, but I NEEDED sugar. To this day, the BEST cup of Joe I have ever had. Whenever I make it that way, I catch up with coffee like it's a long lost friend.
The same way people drink an espresso in it's traditional way, with a zest of lemon. . . *shivers* no way, jose.
Tea, being the second most consumed beverage on this planet, I know has many fashions, ways, and traditions of being drank. . .the way it is consumed in the Americas, I am sure is just another stretch on, or a bastardization of how it was originally intended.
Ultimately, with Tea, and coffee, the reason it is naturally unpalatable, is because it is supposed to be a "turn off" to humans, BUT us, being humans, like the "buzz" it provides, and many cultures, over a LOT of time, have done what they need to do, to make something that is not so enjoyable in it's natural state, enjoyable. That is why we need the additives. AS humans, we have done a great job of tailoring things to suit our pallets, and I enjoy all of the history of it.