Coffee beats tea as Britain's favourite beverage, research suggests

The days of tea being the nation's favourite drink are over as new research suggests coffee has overtaken the British staple

A nation traditionally renowned for its love of tea now favours coffee, new research suggests.

Coffee is flying off supermarket shelves at almost twice the rate of tea, with 533 million packs of coffee and 287 million packets of tea being sold in the UK over the year to March 2023 according to Kantar.

More people regularly drink coffee too. The Statista Global Consumer Survey found that 63% of Britons drink coffee regularly, while only 59% regularly drink tea, according to The Times.

Coffee is the most popular drink worldwide, with around two billion cups consumed every day, according to the British Coffee Association.

Of those two billion cups gulped globally, 95 million are consumed in Britain.

The reason for the rise in popularity of coffee might be attributed to its versatility, food and drinks expert Aidy Smith told the newspaper.

“The truth is, tea is becoming outdated. While the country does clearly still embrace it, coffee just has an added dash of excitement. All you need to do is hop onto Google Maps and type in ‘coffee shop’ versus ‘tea shop’ to see the remarkable differences.

“There’s also so much you can do with coffee. The ability to serve it in so many ways with so many flavour variations and with such creativity has led to it being embraced on such a high level. I mean, what’s the equivalent of latte art with tea? Tea bag art? I don’t think so.”

Nespresso boss Anna Lundstom said more and more people are consuming coffee in a number of ways - whether it's in a latte, an iced beverage, or an espresso martini.

"The UK’s coffee scene is one of the world’s most dynamic and exciting - this really is a nation of coffee lovers," she told the paper.

Last week, new figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed that the Consumer Prices Index (CPI) inflation rate for tea and coffee has slowed in recent months.

The average rise in price in the 12 months to June 2023 for tea was 16%, slowing to 12.7% in the 12 months to July.

The price of coffee dropped five percentage points within the same periods, going from 11.4% to 6.3%.

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