Man’s Long-Standing Prank Exposes Wife’s Fake Coffee Snobbery, She Takes Offense
In a recent Super Bowl commercial, the polar bear, the Coca-Cola mascot, fails a blind test between Coke and Pepsi, sending him into a deep depression. In another recent experiment, several dozen audiophiles failed a blind test between special audio cables and an ordinary carrot. The peculiar blind test we’ll tell you about today lasted eight years!
Yes, that’s right, one little joke by the user u/Inevitable-Camel6036, the author of our story today, gradually grew into a long-standing “tradition,” and when the man finally put an end to this protracted “prank,” his wife was incredibly offended. But let’s take things one step at a time.
More info: Reddit
The placebo effect is both well-known and widespread nowadays, and the story we’re about to tell you now is apparently something of the kind
Image credits: ASDFpik / Freepik (not the actual photo)
The author of the post and his wife have been married for 16 years, and the woman is an avid coffee-lover
Image credits: user20119892 / Freepik (not the actual photo)
The woman claims she doesn’t like dark roast coffee, so for the first eight years of their marriage, the author had been brewing light roast for her
Image credits: lookstudio / Freepik (not the actual photo)
Then, one day, the man bought dark roast coffee by mistake – but his wife unexpectedly spotted no difference
Image credits: Inevitable-Camel6036
The “blind test” lasted for eight years until the woman discovered the truth and accused her husband of lying to her all this time
The lives of many people on the planet today begin with coffee. Mine, by the way, does too. However, even after years and thousands of cups drunk and brewed, I can’t say with certainty that I can easily distinguish, for example, a dark roast from a light roast. The Original poster’s (OP) wife couldn’t do it either. Admittedly, it took her and her husband eight years to realize this…
The author has been married for over a decade and a half, and when he and his future wife moved in together, she declared that she didn’t like dark roast coffee and only drank light roast. She repeatedly sent back dark roast coffee in various coffee shops and restaurants, and for eight whole years, the author brewed only light roast for her.
Then, one day, while buying coffee, our hero made a mistake and bought a dark roast. He discovered this only when he got home and decided to secretly make his wife coffee with those beans once, and then buy the proper ones the next day. Imagine his surprise when she didn’t suspect a thing and even praised the taste of the drink! The OP continued this “experiment,” and his wife drank it with pleasure every time.
This continued for another eight years, until recently, while shopping together at the store, our hero picked up his usual dark roast pack. When his wife reprimanded him for not loving it, he decided to confess to the long-running prank. Now his wife is offended and started brewing the coffee herself in a separate pot, and the guy has decided to seek support online.
Image credits: wirestock / Freepik (not the actual photo)
In fact, the difference between light and dark roasts matters. For example, this article at Health Line states that light roasts are typically roasted between 350°F and 400°F for around 10 minutes or less, while dark roasts are heated for closer to 15 minutes above 400°F. This results in differences in both the structure and appearance of the beans and the texture and flavor of the resulting drink.
At the same time, most blind tests are conducted among professional baristas, and the test samples are typically cups of espresso, without sugar, milk, or any flavorings. If the original poster’s wife is used to drinking coffee drinks with a lot of milk (like latte or flat white), it would be quite difficult to tell the difference.
People in the comments mostly noted that the author’s wife likely prefers the idea of a light roast rather than the light roast itself. In other words, a kind of placebo effect is at work here. The placebo effect has been known to people since the Renaissance, when the French philosopher Michel de Montaigne wrote that “there are people on whom the mere attention of medicine is effective.”
Today, the placebo effect is based on suggestion, whereby people are led to believe that the medicine they are taking has a strong therapeutic effect. However, the actual therapeutic benefit of placebos in modern medicine is quite limited, despite being well-known. Well, some of the responders even wrote that the problem isn’t the coffee, but the relationship between the spouses…
So now we have two more questions for you, our dear readers. First, can you honestly distinguish between dark and light roast coffee yourselves? Second, what do you actually think about this described situation? Please feel free to share your thoughts in the comments below this post.
Many commenters noted that the author’s wife apparently hated not the dark roast but the idea of it, so it’s definitely a placebo effect here
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I don't understand why he didn't tell her the first time she tried it. Yes he's an arsehole.
Finally among all the comments i find the one person who had the same thought i had immediately after reading this. Husband should have come clean after the first accidental purchase, Even if she'd already drank a cup of the coffee. He could have said something like i'm sorry i accidentally bought dark roast instead.
Load More Replies...My wife loathes Marmite. She loves the stews I make because of their rich flavour. The secret ingredient? 🤫
My wife fell for the racist msg lie. She kept saying it gave her a headache and she was actively avoiding it whenever we went out until finally I said "You know how much you love my jambalaya and paella? Do you know what my 'secret ingredient' is?" I handed her a box of seasoning, main ingredient: msg. I showed her articles on where the lie came from and other items we use often that casually contain msg... we now have msg openly in our spice cabinet. The only things we each truly loathe: me, pine nuts; her, goat cheese.
Load More Replies...Lies to wife to be petty for 8 years, wonders if he's the jerk. Yes, yes you are.
She's lied about disliking dark roast for longer than he lied
Load More Replies...Was she a bit ridiculous about her preference? Sure. But maybe she even had a bad experience with dark roast and every place where she sent it back just had crappy coffee she equated to being dark. Was it worth lying by omission to her for EIGHT YEARS to prove a completely pointless point? I guess only OP can decide because, it's not about the coffee, it's about EIGHT YEARS of doing this to someone you claim to care about. Yes, it's ultimately harmless but that's besides that point.
wow OP is an a*s. He willingly lied to the person he claims to love, for 8 years, and his excuse is "she didn't realize"
I’ve never, ever drunk coffee, though my mom drank sooo much of it (she brewed and drank AN ENTIRE POT at bedtime!) that I’ve always joked i prolly had enough of it in the womb. It only just dawned on me this moment that I love coffee-flavored everything else (like ice cream and liquor), so the problem isn’t coffee after all, but rather HOT DRINKS! I only ever drink hot chocolate or perhaps tea when I’m very sick with a respiratory infection or I was outside a long time in the cold. I’m simply not interested in hot drinks! I realize this is entirely off-topic but this post about the woman not knowing what she’s drinking and apparently not having a preference either way after all made me think of my coffee aversion and the 💡 went off. It’s not coffee that bugs me but rather hot drinks!
Of course OP is a jerk. After the first time (or the first week, whatever), he could have said "Oh, I accidentally made you dark roast, I guess you've grown to not hate dark roasts anymore. Or maybe you don't hate ALL dark roasts". That way she wouldn't have to live with the idea that she hated it for so many years. And why assume she lied? Maybe she hated it when she was younger and she didn't know her taste changed because she never gave it a chance (if she always sends it back before even tasting it). Maybe she hates some dark roasts but not all. Or maybe it depends on what she drinks it with (if she drinks it with milk or lots of sugar at home, but pure coffee when she's at a coffee shop) whether she can stand it or not. But even if she did, why would OP purposely hide it from her for years? That is a very weird way of being in a relationship.
"That's not a taste preference, that's a belief system." Oh, those words made the waiter in me giggle.
I had a boss swear he could tell the difference between regular caffeinated and decaf - in a cappuccino with lots of foam and sugar. He told me to never serve him decaf. But then one day his wife tells me his doctor wants him to cut down his caffeine (a cappuccino every hour on the hour, this guy). Gotcha. First - every post lunch cap was decaf. No a peep. Worked him back to just the first coffee of the day was caffeinated (to avoid the headache). Every one after that was decaf. Not a peep.
I like a blend of light, dark, and espresso roasts. Light roast on its own is too acidic and lacks flavor, but light roast also has the most caffeine.
To be honest...her snobbery is one that would make me roll my eyes too. It's one thing to have a preference, but obviously it's just one of those pretentious things she doesn't like. She sees it like her personality - there's an arrogance to it. No different from people who are snobs about wine when they don't know jack s**t. Sort of like that reddit story of a woman whose husband and sister in law called her names. We felt it was justified because they were a jerk first, but really it's that and the snobbery. Especially when she decided to prove her point by going back to light roast rather than admitting that maybe, just maybe it's not a big deal and stop making ppl's lives around her so difficult.
I don't understand why he didn't tell her the first time she tried it. Yes he's an arsehole.
Finally among all the comments i find the one person who had the same thought i had immediately after reading this. Husband should have come clean after the first accidental purchase, Even if she'd already drank a cup of the coffee. He could have said something like i'm sorry i accidentally bought dark roast instead.
Load More Replies...My wife loathes Marmite. She loves the stews I make because of their rich flavour. The secret ingredient? 🤫
My wife fell for the racist msg lie. She kept saying it gave her a headache and she was actively avoiding it whenever we went out until finally I said "You know how much you love my jambalaya and paella? Do you know what my 'secret ingredient' is?" I handed her a box of seasoning, main ingredient: msg. I showed her articles on where the lie came from and other items we use often that casually contain msg... we now have msg openly in our spice cabinet. The only things we each truly loathe: me, pine nuts; her, goat cheese.
Load More Replies...Lies to wife to be petty for 8 years, wonders if he's the jerk. Yes, yes you are.
She's lied about disliking dark roast for longer than he lied
Load More Replies...Was she a bit ridiculous about her preference? Sure. But maybe she even had a bad experience with dark roast and every place where she sent it back just had crappy coffee she equated to being dark. Was it worth lying by omission to her for EIGHT YEARS to prove a completely pointless point? I guess only OP can decide because, it's not about the coffee, it's about EIGHT YEARS of doing this to someone you claim to care about. Yes, it's ultimately harmless but that's besides that point.
wow OP is an a*s. He willingly lied to the person he claims to love, for 8 years, and his excuse is "she didn't realize"
I’ve never, ever drunk coffee, though my mom drank sooo much of it (she brewed and drank AN ENTIRE POT at bedtime!) that I’ve always joked i prolly had enough of it in the womb. It only just dawned on me this moment that I love coffee-flavored everything else (like ice cream and liquor), so the problem isn’t coffee after all, but rather HOT DRINKS! I only ever drink hot chocolate or perhaps tea when I’m very sick with a respiratory infection or I was outside a long time in the cold. I’m simply not interested in hot drinks! I realize this is entirely off-topic but this post about the woman not knowing what she’s drinking and apparently not having a preference either way after all made me think of my coffee aversion and the 💡 went off. It’s not coffee that bugs me but rather hot drinks!
Of course OP is a jerk. After the first time (or the first week, whatever), he could have said "Oh, I accidentally made you dark roast, I guess you've grown to not hate dark roasts anymore. Or maybe you don't hate ALL dark roasts". That way she wouldn't have to live with the idea that she hated it for so many years. And why assume she lied? Maybe she hated it when she was younger and she didn't know her taste changed because she never gave it a chance (if she always sends it back before even tasting it). Maybe she hates some dark roasts but not all. Or maybe it depends on what she drinks it with (if she drinks it with milk or lots of sugar at home, but pure coffee when she's at a coffee shop) whether she can stand it or not. But even if she did, why would OP purposely hide it from her for years? That is a very weird way of being in a relationship.
"That's not a taste preference, that's a belief system." Oh, those words made the waiter in me giggle.
I had a boss swear he could tell the difference between regular caffeinated and decaf - in a cappuccino with lots of foam and sugar. He told me to never serve him decaf. But then one day his wife tells me his doctor wants him to cut down his caffeine (a cappuccino every hour on the hour, this guy). Gotcha. First - every post lunch cap was decaf. No a peep. Worked him back to just the first coffee of the day was caffeinated (to avoid the headache). Every one after that was decaf. Not a peep.
I like a blend of light, dark, and espresso roasts. Light roast on its own is too acidic and lacks flavor, but light roast also has the most caffeine.
To be honest...her snobbery is one that would make me roll my eyes too. It's one thing to have a preference, but obviously it's just one of those pretentious things she doesn't like. She sees it like her personality - there's an arrogance to it. No different from people who are snobs about wine when they don't know jack s**t. Sort of like that reddit story of a woman whose husband and sister in law called her names. We felt it was justified because they were a jerk first, but really it's that and the snobbery. Especially when she decided to prove her point by going back to light roast rather than admitting that maybe, just maybe it's not a big deal and stop making ppl's lives around her so difficult.




























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