They must be spectacularly difficult to brew, because they taste just as bad when I have them at coffee shops. I basically can't order coffee in most places now because these flavours have taken over. I'd love to be able to live vicariously through someone else's palate and understand the appeal.

Real coffee does taste "bad" if you're not used to it. What you're enjoying is bland coffee. If that's enough for you, there's no imperative to go for the better stuff.

There's no reason to claim that the better stuff is not better, that's just pointless anti-elitism. As a kid, I certainly enjoyed a McDonalds burger over a rare tenderloin. The tenderloin obviously was better though.

I've been trying for several years! I have worked hard to acquire many acquired tastes, I don't want to have to flash my snob card here. But this taste just completely eludes me. My only hope is that other comments elsethread are right, and my town in Yorkshire maybe isn't home to the most talented or knowledgeable baristas and roasters, and they genuinely are serving garbage. In the meantime, when I need a coffee, I will have a cup of coffee and not a mouthful of the water at the bottom of my fridge's vegetable drawer.

I'll be honest, if they're using an automatic coffee maker (one where the puck is ground and processed internally), this very well could be the case. Also keep in mind that flavor profiles are generally targeted for espresso (either a double shot of something slightly watered down).