A survey reveals insights from 1,300+ coffee drinkers to help producers, marketers, and retailers drive more customers
According to an online survey conducted by Drive Research, 73 per cent of people drink coffee every day. Although coffee is known to provide a boost of energy and alertness, the survey found that the caffeine high is not the primary reason for coffee consumption.
For 83 per cent of consumers, taste is the most influential reason they drink coffee. This reason tops others such as coffee giving people energy (67 per cent), increasing their productivity (43 per cent), and its perceived health benefits (29 per cent).
With a majority of people drinking coffee for the taste, it comes as no surprise that only 18 per cent of people prefer to drink their coffee black – a 56 per cent decrease from 2022. This suggests a notable change in growing preferences for coffee variations with added flavours such as milk/creamer (39 per cent), sweetener (5 per cent), or both (38 per cent).
More specifically, both almond milk and oat milk are growing in popularity among coffee drinkers. According to our 2024 coffee survey data, preferences for oat milk grew by 90 per cent, and preferences for almond milk grew by 71 per cent since 2022.
Furthermore, people love the taste of coffee so much that they consume it in other ways than their morning or afternoon pick-me-up. Over half of the respondents surveyed enjoy coffee cake (61 per cent) and coffee ice cream (54 per cent).
Plus we can’t forget about espresso martinis which are adored by 1 in 4 people – a 79 per cent increase from our 2022 coffee survey. Big fans of the trendy cocktail are Millennials (36 per cent) and Gen Z (33 per cent).
