Consumption reaches record levels
Germans drink so much coffee
4/11/2023 8:13 am
Coffee is by far the most popular drink in Germany. Especially after the pandemic, a visit to the café is more popular than ever. However, a new trend has established itself for preparation at home.
The already high coffee consumption in Germany has risen to a record level. Overall, an average of almost four cups per coffee drinker are currently consumed per capita and day, as reported by the German Coffee Association – citing commissioned market research. This is partly due to the omission of the corona restrictions in gastronomy last year.
In 2021 it was still 3.6 cups and in the pre-pandemic year 2019 it was about 3.5 cups. Coffee is by far the most popular drink in Germany, ahead of mineral water and beer. The coffee market is showing a shift towards whole beans when preparing at home. Whole beans (plus 8 percent) matched the ground coffee segment for the first time with a market share of around 44 percent. Pads have a 6 percent market share, capsules around 5 percent.
For 2023, the coffee association expects that, for the first time, more “whole beans” will be sold than classic, ground roasted coffee. “Fresh preparation at the push of a button on the fully automatic machine is currently the trend,” says Holger Preibisch, general manager of the German Coffee Association in Hamburg. “Meanwhile, every third household has a corresponding system.”
“Coffee is crisis-proof”
In 2022, more roasted coffee was bought than ever before, as the Coffee Association in Hamburg emphasizes. “With 479,700 tons, sales of roasted coffee are at a record high. The big winner: the catering industry. Coffee consumption in the out-of-home market has increased by around 45 percent compared to the previous year. In 2021, catering was almost the whole first Half of the year closed.”Coffee is crisis-proof,” says Preibisch.The year 2022 was a strong coffee year despite inflation and price-sensitive consumer behavior.
The places where this happened shifted significantly. “We have observed a clear trend towards the out-of-home market. People finally want to get out of their own four walls, they finally want to drink coffee outside again.”
Because fewer people were working from home in 2022, more coffee was drunk again on the way to work or during the lunch break at a business lunch. “Even the classic coffee break experienced a revival.” Calculated on the basis of the increased number of inhabitants, the annual per capita consumption of coffee in 2022 fell slightly to 167 liters – despite record sales.