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AEI’s Mark Perry passes along this chart based on data from the Dept. of Agriculture that coffee consumption among American adults has dropped from a high a 45 gallons per adult to less than 20 gallons per adult per year today, a level lower than it has been since the beginning of the 20th Century.
Some of you need to step up your game.
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@beth:
There was a lot of waste in those large pots. Consumption may not have been that directly measured.
This. People aren’t drinking less coffee, it’s just that the average coffee has much less actual coffee in it now.
Seriously? How do you think they come up with that?
(It is surely a guestimate based on pounds dry beans sold.)
Seriously? How do you think they come up with that?
From the data source:
Coffee is converted to fluid equivalents on the basis of 60 6-oz. cups per pound of regular roasted coffee and 187.5 6-oz. cups per pound of instant coffee.
So the chart could just be reflecting a shift from instant coffee to more regular ground coffee.
@john personna: I was assuming this graph was based on actual coffee beans sold since it’s from the Dept of Agriculture. My thought was that households were buying cans of coffee for home brewing but now they’re just buying individual cups from coffeehouses.
Thanks for that legwork.
@beth:
Sure. I’m just thinking that SB sells every cup they make, in most locations, and seldom pours a pot down the drain. I think in the days of the percolator that happened more.
But who knows, I do meet a lot of people who tell me (preposterously!) that I should drink less coffee. So maybe the low-consumers are out there too.
Fair point. I remember when I was growing up that coffee with dinner was a pretty common thing in my family at least. That was in the 70s though.
As for myself I don’t think I’ve had coffee with dinner in ages.
Coffee is converted to fluid equivalents on the basis of 60 6-oz. cups per pound of regular roasted coffee
If my calculations are correct, I get between 40 and 50 of those 6-oz cups of coffee per pound of roast coffee.
Perhaps people were drinking it stronger, like me, back in the old days (factoring in different brewing methods as well).
@john personna: Ha, my husband insisted on one of those for a while. They made great coffee but I just wasn’t awake enough to have the hand-eye coordination necessary to make a pot without spilling it until I’d had a cup of coffee. See the problem?
@beth:
You know you aren’t awake when you pour the whole beans in the coffee cup instead of the grinder.
@Franklin:
Graph doesn’t start at zero. Therefore, it’s useless.
I’m pretty certain that they didn’t drink a lot of coffee back in 0 BC.
😉
@PJ: There’s someone in every bunch …
So, anyway, I don’t really care about coffee much since I don’t drink it and people who do drink it don’t cause any problems except for stinky breath.
BUT, if you want to see a graph about consumption that is actually important, Google for “sugar consumption by year”. It’s important to all of us since we are now officially sharing healthcare costs, and sugar causes a lot of them.
I remember when I was growing up that coffee with dinner was a pretty common thing in my family at least. That was in the 70s though.
My Dad used to drink it all day, but that can only be maintained for so many years before you dry out and start turning inside out. The old aunts and uncles used to drink it almost like a desert. Dinner, then coffee. They drank it in the morning too.
I’m pretty sure all the cousins only drink it in the morning, like me. Coffee, at night? No wonder Johnny Carson was so popular.
@James Pearce: Coffee with dessert is pretty standard for me and my friends when we dine out. On the other hand, I dine out less than almost anyone I know, so I’m not doing my part for the National Consumption.
I think the folks who are talking about wasted coffee in the past are probably close to the mark. Coffee used to be a staple, like flour or sugar. (Look up the provisions the Lewis and Clark expedition took with them, and what fraction of it by weight was coffee.) It was made in percolators, and leftovers were dumped as casually as we dump the pasta water. Now that coffee is expensive (by choice), we don’t do that so much any more.
@Mr. Coffee: Hate us. Here in Brazil we plant coffee trees in our gardens.
…but that can only be maintained for so many years before you dry out and start turning inside out.
Well I’m doomed. I go out alot to watch sports since my TV at home doesn’t get any channels.
Just had 4 cups of Rocket Fuel and 8 Chicken Wings watching the Bulls at one Beanery and about 4 more cups of Worm Dirt and a piece of Garlic Toast at another Hash House watching the ends of 3 different NCAAM Conference Tournament contests in the last 4 hours.
This on top of the several 50 cent doses of Senior Swill I got at the Micky D’s along the route of a day trip I had to run earlier.
Even at that it’s all I can do to keep from falling asleep driving a few miles home when the games are over.
@Andre Kenji: Hate us.
Not a chance.
I still have this on the vinyl I bought when I was in High School in 1964.
Why isn’t this your National Anthem?
Well, considering what used to be served as coffee in the US…..
I don’t remember my parents drinking coffee at any point except in the morning.
The greatest invention in the world (IMHO) was decaf. I can brew myself a nice cup of coffee at night and not worry about bouncing off the walls the entire rest of the evening.
