When I am at home in the USA, I drink only black coffee.
When I was in Colombia I drank it with panela and it doesn't taste like sugared coffee. The panela gives it its own unique taste but not of sugared coffee.......or how sugar in coffee in the USA would taste.

sorry, not sure how to describe it other then it's 2 different ways of having coffee, like the difference in having espresso and pressed coffee is the closest I can get to it in words.