When I stopped drinking caffeinated coffee, I lost my taste for coffee, but developed a great interest in tea.
Caffeine addiction transference?
It's like methadone.
I quit coffee every once in a while and it usually takes a couple of days to return to normal functioning. The tea helps.
BTW there are some interesting coffee documentaries shown occasionally on the tube (available on Netflix too).
"a press pot"
Try a Chemex: http://www.chemexcoffeemaker.com/ . It's not as bitter.
An Aeropress is awesome, too. Cheap ($25), easy to clean, makes fantastic coffee.
I didn't see it mentioned in the thread, so here's coffee's HN equivalent:
While I do drink coffee for the caffeine (and experience withdrawal symptoms without it), a substantial motivation is that I simply enjoy the flavor of a properly made cup of coffee.