It helps to separate what you actually enjoy from what you think you are supposed to order, plenty of people force themselves through a plain black Americano because it feels like the "serious" coffee choice, while quietly preferring something sweeter and creamier the whole time. There is no prize for drinking coffee a particular way, the entire point of a drink is that you enjoy it, and the fastest path to actually liking coffee is ordering what genuinely tastes good to you rather than what you assume looks impressive.
A lot of people order the same one or two coffee drinks forever, not because they have found their favorite, but because they never had a simple way to translate "what I like in food and drinks generally" into "what I should order at a cafe." Here is a straightforward way to work backward from taste preference rather than guessing off a menu.
If you gravitate toward sweet desserts and rarely order anything bitter, start with condensed-milk-based drinks. A Spanish latte or Vietnamese-style iced coffee will feel familiar and comforting rather than challenging, since both are built around sweetness balancing out the coffee rather than the coffee being the star. Resonate Coffee's Dirty Flan, blending coffee with an actual flan-inspired flavor profile, is a good example of a shop leaning fully into this direction on purpose.
If you like your food salty-sweet, think salted caramel over plain caramel, or savory pastries alongside your coffee, look for salt-forward drinks specifically. Inarawan Cafe's Salty Cream Barako and Cuppo Coffee's Sea Salt Latte both lean into that contrast deliberately, and it is a genuinely different experience from a standard sweetened latte.
Texture is another axis worth considering separately from flavor. If you generally prefer creamy, rich textures, think full-fat ice cream over sorbet, a milk-forward drink like a latte or a Spanish latte is going to satisfy you more than a black Americano ever will, no matter how good the beans are. If you prefer a lighter, cleaner mouthfeel, closer to how you might prefer tea over a milkshake, a black pour-over or drip coffee will feel more natural than anything built around milk or condensed milk.
If you tend to prefer bold, intense flavors, dark chocolate over milk chocolate, strong tea over weak, you are probably better suited to darker roasts or Robusta-forward drinks than delicate light-roast pour-overs. Vietnamese-style coffee, built specifically around Robusta's stronger, more bitter character, is worth exploring here, and Viet Cà Phê and Drip Kofi both specialize in it.
If you actually enjoy nuanced, complex flavors the way some people enjoy wine tasting notes, fruity, floral, or nutty descriptors, a light-roast pour-over from a shop that roasts its own beans is going to reward you far more than an overly sweetened drink would. Franken Coffee Bar + Roastery, which roasts in-house and has built a reputation around hands-on pour-over prep, is the clearest local option for exploring this direction seriously. Perfect Daily Grind's beginner guide to cupping is worth reading alongside it if you want to train your palate deliberately rather than just drinking more.
If you are simply unsure and want something universally approachable, a hazelnut latte is a safe, crowd-pleasing middle ground, sweet enough to be easy but not as dessert-forward as a full condensed-milk drink. Lay-By Coffee in Nangka has one on their regular menu alongside a Dirty Horchata for anyone wanting to explore a bit further in that same comforting direction.
Temperature preference matters too and is easy to overlook. If you gravitate toward warm, comforting drinks generally, soup over salad, tea over juice, a hot pour-over or a warm Spanish latte is going to feel more satisfying than the same drink over ice, even if the flavor profile is identical. If you almost always reach for something cold regardless of weather, lean toward the iced and cold brew side of the menu by default, since a hot drink cooled down is rarely as good as one built to be served cold from the start.
Time of day is worth factoring in too, even though it is easy to overlook. A rich, dessert-forward drink like a Dirty Flan or a Spanish latte tends to feel indulgent and satisfying as an afternoon treat, but slightly heavy first thing in the morning for some people. A lighter, cleaner pour-over or a straightforward black coffee tends to sit better early in the day before you have eaten much, saving the richer, sweeter options for later once your stomach has something else in it.
What you like to eat alongside your coffee can point you in a useful direction too. If you usually pair coffee with something buttery or plain, like a croissant or pandesal, a milder, sweeter drink tends to complement rather than compete with the pastry. If you tend to pair coffee with something already rich or intensely flavored, chocolate cake, a savory breakfast, a bolder, less sweetened drink usually holds its own better instead of getting lost next to the food.
None of this is a rigid rulebook, plenty of people enjoy a wide spread across all of these categories depending on mood, weather, or time of day. But if you have ever stood at a counter unsure what to order, working backward from flavors you already know you like is a far better strategy than picking randomly or always defaulting to the same drink out of habit. If sweetness above all else is really your compass, our guide to coffee for people who don't usually like coffee goes even further in that direction. Morgan Eckroth is worth following too, for the barista's-side view of how to actually ask for what you want at a counter.