Is America’s love affair with the morning cup of coffee coming to an end?
A new study by the National Coffee Association finds fewer of us are drinking a cup of jo each day. 59% of Americans surveyed say they have at least one cup a day, down from 61% last year and 63% in 2013. And what might be a more disturbing sign for the industry, another report finds those aged 18 to 29 prefer tea as much as coffee.
Yahoo Finance’s Aaron Task thinks consumers may just have maxxed out with all the coffee offerings available now.
“Maybe we’ve hit peak coffee,” he speculates. “Everywhere you look there’s a new coffee bar and maybe people just want to try something different.”
Task also says the shift might be part of the “craft” movement we’ve been seeing in beer and other foods.
“Tea can be very crafty,” he points out. “You go into the tea shop and you smell them and you try them and a brewed pot of tea is a wonderful thing.”
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Task wonders if younger people are turning to tea as a more-healthy option to coffee.
“Maybe it’s part of a health trend in this country because you can make a case that tea is healthier for you than coffee,” he adds. “A lot of younger people are doing yoga and meditation and caffeine does not help you make your mind settle, it does the opposite, it agitates your mind. So maybe they’re taking those lessons to heart and saying I’m going to skip coffee and have tea, although most tea has a lot of caffeine in it, too.“
On the plus side for the industry, the Coffee Association notes that 78% of us still drink coffee sometime, and ownership of one-cup brewing systems such as Keurig Green Mountain’s (GMCR) Keurig machines is at a record 27%.
Task doesn’t feel coffee makers should be too worried about Americans giving up one of their favorite drinks.
“I don’t know if tea is going to replace coffee,” he says. “I wonder if this is in some way just a backlash against Starbucks (SBUX).”