By Dig Insights, NCA Market Research Partner

NCA Members have access to the Fall 2022 NCDT Report Highlights webinar in which Cheryl Hung of Dig Insights gives a detailed explanation of the report’s findings. That webinar can be found here.

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Coffee consumption among Americans continues its two-decade high, according to exclusive consumer polling released by the National Coffee Association (NCA). Two-thirds (66%) of Americans drank at least one coffee beverage in the past day, holding steady with increased levels seen earlier in the year. Once again, July 2022 sees more Americans drinking coffee in the past day than any other beverage, including bottled water (60%) and tap water (46%).

The Fall 2022 National Coffee Data Trends (NCDT) report prepared by Dig Insights on behalf of the NCA found that Americans continue to have a taste for specialty coffee despite tough economic times and rising inflation. 42% of Americans drank a specialty coffee beverage in the past day in July 2022, on par with past-day consumption of traditional coffee (43%).

Cold brew coffee, included in the specialty beverage category, experiences new growth. Past-week consumption of cold brew rises to 20% of Americans in July 2022, growing from 16% past-week levels in January 2022.

For the place of coffee preparation, in-home coffee preparation continues to be most prevalent for Americans, with 82% of past-day coffee drinkers having a coffee prepared at home.

Out-of-home preparation remains softer than pre-COVID levels with 28% of past-day coffee drinkers having had a coffee outside the home. However, signs of recovery can be seen in certain out-of-home coffee venues. Consumption of coffee prepared at cafés and coffee shops grows to 14% among past-day drinkers, an increase of 20% from January 2022 levels.

Other key Fall 2022 NCDT findings include:

• Past-day drinkers are most commonly adding milk or milk alternatives (29%) and liquid creamer (25%) to their cups and sweetening with white sugar (19%) and artificial sweetener (10%).
• 40% of past-day coffee drinkers use a drip coffee maker for brewing, making this the most common preparation method followed by single-cup systems (24%), cold brewing (14%), and espresso machines (11%). 
• For past-day drinkers brewing at home, 35% purchase coffee at the grocery store, followed by mass merchandiser (26%), club store (13%), and online (13%).
• Certain coffee claims show the potential to motivate purchase. Over one-half of Americans (56%) say they are more likely to buy a coffee with the claim “fair price paid to the farmer”.

NCA Members have access to the Fall 2022 NCDT Report Highlights webinar in which Cheryl Hung of Dig Insights gives a detailed explanation of the report’s findings. That webinar can be found here.