Brits love tea, don’t they? Well, not as much as they used to.
A new study by workplace refreshment company, Express, shows more and more Brits are ditching a cuppa in favour of a freshly brewed coffee.
Express has studied 40 years of data recording what people eat and drink at home, at work, and on the move to see how our diets have changed, or indeed stayed the same.
Looking specifically at hot drinks consumption, it seems Britain’s love affair with tea has reached boiling point.
Since 1978, tea drinking is down 23 percent and while it remains the most consumed hot drink in the UK, its popularity has dropped from 65 percent in 1978 to just 42 percent in 2018:
| Popularity of hot drinks over the past 40 years | ||||
| Year | Tea | Fresh coffee | Instant Coffee | Hot Chocolate |
| 2018 | 42% | 21% | 27% | 6% |
| 2008 | 56% | 6% | 26% | 9% |
| 1998 | 55% | 6% | 19% | 10% |
| 1988 | 56% | 6% | 18% | 12% |
| 1978 | 65% | 3% | 15% | 9% |
At the same time, café culture is sweeping the nation. According to the British Coffee Association, Brits drink an estimated 95 million cups of coffee a day. As well as enjoying the energy-boosting drink at work and in the comfort of our own homes, 80 percent of people now visit a coffee shop at least once a week.
This has created a new growing breed of “coffee snobs” who much prefer barista-style freshly brewed coffee over the instant kind made from dried coffee extract.
Coffee made from ground or whole beans now makes up 21 percent of the UK’s hot drinks consumption, compared to just 3 percent in 1978. In ten years, its popularly has jumped up an impressive 18 percent.
The nation’s least favourite hot drink continues to be fermented malt drinks made from grain or seed of the barley plant which first hit the shops in the early 20th century. In the past 40 years, the popularly of malt drinks spiked in 1992 at 15 percent but has since dropped to its lowest ever level at 2 percent.
Hot chocolate is also falling out of favour with Brits. Only 6 percent of people now pick it as their hot beverage of choice compared to 12 percent in 1988.
This fall in popularity could be down to more people making healthier choices. The calorific nature of many café-bought hot chocolates hit the headlines recently after it was discovered that enjoying one with indulgent extras could add over 700 calories to your daily intake and contain as much as 23 teaspoons of sugar.
To view the complete list of foods analysed from 1974 – 2018, click here.