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More young adults in the U.S. are drinking coffee than ever before, according to the latest “Atlas of American Coffee” released by the National Coffee Association.
Out of home coffee consumption (28% of past-day coffee drinkers) has yet to fully recover to pre-COVID levels (36% in January 2020), but coffee is making its way back to work as 36% of Americans have an in-office coffee station, up by 20% since January 2022.
The National Coffee Data Trends report found coffee has reached record-high popularity with 18-24 year olds, with 51% having drunk coffee in the past day, surpassing the record of 50% set in September 2020.
The number of coffee drinkers who say their financial situation is worse than it was four months ago has increased by 59% since January, and six out of 10 people now say that they are cautious about their spending habits.
Despite this, overall past-day coffee consumption (66% of Americans over 18) remains at the two-decade high first reached in January 2022.
Coffee is more popular than any other beverage including tap water and is most popular in the Northeast, where 72% of adults have had a coffee in the past day.
The NCDT’s first-time research into the frequency of away-from-home coffee purchases found that 33% of past-week coffee drinkers buy coffee away from home at least four times per week, and another 56% buy coffee away from home one to three times per week.
Other findings include:
- In the past week, 63% of Americans over 18 had at least one traditional coffee, and 54% had at least one specialty coffee. The top three most popular specialty coffee beverages are lattes (17%), espressos (16%) and cappuccinos (15%).
- 32% of Americans had flavored coffee in the past week. Vanilla is the most popular flavor, followed by caramel and mocha.
- 30% of past-day coffee drinkers had cold coffee, which includes cold brew, iced coffee and frozen beverages.
