Does our love of coffee mean it is recession proof?
According to recent research by the National Coffee Association, perhaps the answer to this question is rather positive. It has been revealed that despite the gloomy economic climate in recent years, coffee has withstood the recession relatively well. It seems that younger coffee drinkers (in the 18-39 age bracket) are particularly partial to a cuppa and levels of consumption are similar to those in 2008 and 2009. It seems that they are a loyal bunch to their coffee drinking habit.
So why have the figures remained so buoyant? One explanation that has been given is that this demographic group are becoming more optimistic about their financial position.
The National Coffee Association study has also revealed other facts and figures about coffee-drinking trends. Apparently, 24% of regular coffee drinkers consume coffee away from the home whereas the rest of these daily coffee drinkers chose to drink at home. Certainly, there has been a lot of interest in the gourmet coffee brands, which goes to show that quality is still important to consumers, recession notwithstanding. It seems that coffee connoisseurs are becoming more sophisticated in their tastes – certainly the range of blends and preparations of coffee which are regularly available in coffee shops has also become increasingly sophisticated over recent years.
Some coffee connoisseurs have explained that one of the reasons they love drinking gourmet coffee is that they can experiment and sample high-quality brands for a fraction of the price of other products, such as wine-tasting.