Who consumes coffee and why

Written by Sándor Tóth, coffee expert, barista trainer, and roaster.

I remember my first encounter with coffee: I was a little child, and at my grandparents' house, I got a sugar cube dipped in coffee from a moka pot. It was delicious! At least that's how I remember it. ☺

Then I lingered for the next one, but I got the information that was ingrained in me for decades, which I now know is not true at all: “You can't have more because it contains caffeine, and you won't be able to sleep because of it.”

Well, I think many people know this story, just with different characters.

A few decades have passed. Unfortunately, grandma no longer dips the sugar cube in coffee and gives it to her little grandchild, I have also replaced the moka pot with another tool, and my coffees are chosen more consciously because I know when, why, and what kind of coffee I drink. However, the question arose in me whether others are like this too?

A few years ago, I found a KSH statistic that I can't find now for the world, but according to my memory, it stated that 87% of the adult population consumes coffee. Let's assume I remember the numbers correctly but the order incorrectly, it's still 78%. 

So, let's take a look at what the motivating forces might be?

There are those who are morning coffee addicts, who can't see or hear anything until they've had their coffee. 

There are those who drink milk coffee with breakfast.

There are those who consume it with colleagues in the office.

There are those who have coffee at the train station.

There are those who drink the “after lunch” and the “one for the road”.

There are those who puff alongside, and there are the “why do you smoke with it” types.

There are those who don't care, those who know better than anyone, those who only with sugar, those who say “God forbid with sugar”, the robusta, the arabica, the Italian style,  the ultra new wave, the 3-in-1, the instant, the machine mochaccino, and we could list about a dozen more.