An International Coffee Organization study into drinking patterns has found that fresh roasted coffee has been gaining ground in countries where soluble has always accounted for the lion’s share but, as Robin Stainer reports, where roasted has always been preferred the opposite trend has emerged.
More coffee, it also emerges from its study, is drunk at home than away from it, but no clear common underlying trend appears to be developing, and the soluble coffee market overall has not grown very much in recent years, according to the recently-released study, Drinking patterns in selected importing countries.
In the UK and the Russian Federation, where it remains paramount, soluble saw its share shrink in the period studied (1997-2010), while it made advances in Germany – which in the 1970s and 1980s shunned it – and, albeit less markedly so, in several of the other countries surveyed.
In all countries covered by the study, it was found that that more coffee is consumed at home than out of the home, in commercial locations such as coffee bars, coffee houses, vending machines, restaurants and other places, although in the case of one – Spain – the split was pretty even.
In all the countries, except Russia, the share of out-of-home consumption fell in 2010, possibly as a consequence of the global financial crisis, as consumers cut back discretionary spending and impulse buying.
However, it has been the growing popularity of domestic equipment enabling drinkers easily to recreate at home the brews available in coffee shops, allied to product innovation that has boosted at-home consumption. The recent development of single serve coffee machines, using pods, has been the key driving force here, but the development of internet sales is also encouraging home consumption.
For more information see the forthcoming January 2012 issue of Coffee & Cocoa International.