How you describe your coffee? Strong or weak, bold or mild coffee

[Sweetpumpkin]

Hello,

I have some questions on how you describe your coffee.

When you drink coffee, if you say 'I'd like my coffee strong'(or to be strong? I'm not sure), does it mean it contains a lot of caffein? Or... you know, does it describe a kind of "depth" or "concentration"? I mean, if the color of your coffee is dark and the taste is bitter, would you say "My coffee is too strong. I'd like weaker one."? Then, if it is light, would you say "My coffee is weak" or something?

How about bold coffee and mild one? Do they mean same as strong and weak, respectively?

Then... guess I'm in a coffee shop. The color of my coffee is too dark and the taste is bitter. "My coffee is too strong/bold. I'd like my coffee weak(er)/mild(er)." Do they okay to you? What do you think?

Thanks,
sweetpumpkin

[Jamie (K)]

"I like my coffee strong," means that the coffee is not watery, so therefore it also contains a lot of caffeine. The answers to your questions in that paragraph are all "yes".

You can say "mild coffee", but you can't say bold. Coffee can't really be bold, because it's not human and doesn't take any risks.

"My coffee is too strong. I'd like it weaker/mild(er)." However, we would never say that, because we'd just pour a little water into the coffee.

[Skrej]

[Jamie (K)]

Starbucks may classify certain of their coffees as bold, but actual humans would not describe coffee as bold unless it had some kind of avant-garde characteristic that required some kind of risk to be taken by someone.

There are certain adjectives used in marketing that real people on Planet Earth would never use to describe the same product.

If you want to see a good example of that, watch how much trouble many foreigners have knowing when to call a drink "sparkling" and when to call it "carbonated". "Sparkling" is largely a marketing term, and while real people may use it on some occasions, it sounds silly most of the time when it comes from the mouth of a human. It's even more so with "bold" used to describe coffee.