What are good beans?

When people say good beans they are talking about something like not Folgers preground coffee.

Honestly find a local coffee shop and buy beans from there and it will be a lot more flavour, and ask the barista what they recommend. They might even be able to make some to try

As for weening off cream switch to something lower fat, and reduce every couple days. Even using 1% milk is going to be worlds better than any heavy cream of flavoured creamer (health wise, maybe not so much in the flavour category)

i have local roasters.
and it's a matter of taste as well.
i also got a grinder so i buy beans and then grind as needed

that being said i can do folgers black too.

I grind fresh beans daily. We have a few local places we like to buy beans from, but those are typically for weekends or other special occasions. For daily coffee we usually get Kirkland Signature Colombian.

You'll probably have to experiment with different roasts too. I prefer a medium roast which I drink black. Every once in awhile my wife will get a dark roast and I have to cut that with some milk or 1/2 and 1/2 because it's too bitter for me black.

How much you use will also make a difference in strength. My MIL uses good quality beans, but she makes her coffee pretty weak and it's basically brown water regardless of the bean quality.

I'm sitting in one of my favorite coffee shops right now drinking black coffee (and eating a cookie) and echo most people here. To me, good coffee is recently roasted (thus local) and freshly ground. I also am one of those people who metabolizes caffeine too quickly for it to have any stimulant affect, so I really only drink coffee for the taste.