When I first started digging into the subject of world coffee consumption, I thought it was going to be an article about Italian espresso bars and French brasseries. I couldn’t be more wrong! In fact, Italians are not even in the top 10 of world biggest coffee consumers.
Who drinks all this coffee then? The top 20 world coffee consumers according to ICO (International Coffee Organisation).
Why is so much coffee consumed in Finland, Norway, Denmark and Sweden? First of all, Scandinavia is known not only for its low temperatures and high prices, but also for Hygge and Fika tradition. Fika means ‘stop whatever you are doing and enjoy your coffee’. It’s a lot more than other countries’ coffee and cake tradition. It’s a moment for yourself or a moment that you can share with your friends to calm your nerves and keep energy for the rest of the day. There are many instructions on ‘How to Fika’, the simplest one that I managed to gather is:
- Get comfortable
- Get coffee
- Get a cake (or any other type of food)
- Repeat as many times as you need (and refill your coffee)
Cheers to Fika!
The Finnish are also believed to be the pioneers of speciality coffee in Europe. It’s mostly because, while other nations were buying dark-roasted coffee, in Finland people had access to green beans and roasted them at home, much lighter than commercial companies. Some people became really good at it and started looking for better quality coffee to achieve better results.
Going down the list, the Netherlands’ coffee consumption is also impressive (third place in the World in 2013, fifth in the most recent report). The Dutch, as the first European nation, obtained coffee trees in the early 16th century. The plants came from Yemen and, as European climate does not allow for coffee plant growth, they were transferred to Java and Suriname, which were Dutch colonies. These islands remained the main coffee suppliers to the Old Continent for a long time. 400 years later the Netherlands is still known for its coffee shops, where coffee is served alongside with another speciality product 😉
Belgium also owes its high coffee consumption to historical reasons. Back in the days, it was a colonial power in Africa with an easy access to the best coffees in Rwanda and Congo. As you have probably noticed, once you get into coffee, there is no way out. The fact that coffee goes great with waffles and chocolate probably has a lot to do with that too.
Canada closes the TOP10 list and Iceland holds the third place, which makes me wonder – maybe I am looking for a bit far-fetched reasons behind the coffee consumption, while the answer is simple – people drink the biggest amounts of coffee when they are cold?
How about a country like Poland? Even though we spend 6 months of the year under the blanket, Poles drink 2.3 kg of coffee per capita per year. So my temperature hypothesis seems to be wrong. And if you are still wondering if another cup of coffee would be too much – it won’t! Moominpappa would probably be after his 5th cup already!
Source:
ICO https://www.ico.org/profiles_e.asp
World Atlas https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/top-10-coffee-consuming-nations.html
Huffington Post: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/adam-groffman/how-to-fika-a-swedish-cul_b_10695292.html
