Whether it’s iced coffee or a flavored latte, decaf or full-throttle, 82% of coffee-lovers nationwide admit to drinking it daily. This year nearly 1,500 respondents weighed in to share their habits and opinions with us for our third-annual National Coffee Survey. The findings reveal that respondents are increasingly purchasing coffee outside of the home (up 8% over 2014), latte art is #trending, as 45% of respondents say they “love it” (up from 38% last year) and the popularity of flat whites is on the rise.

Survey participants typically pay $3.28, on average, for a coffee drink; a steady increase from $3.05 in 2014 and $2.98 in 2013. But how much is too much to pay for a regular cup of joe? Respondents say $3.67, on average. When it comes to barista-prepared coffee, they say $5.07 - a full 38% more.
While the national average number of coffee drinks consumed is 2.1 per day, our results show that coffee consumption increases with age. People in their twenties consume the least number of coffee drinks per day (1.8), compared to those in their thirties (2.0), forties (2.2), fifties (2.4) and sixties (2.4).

When breaking the results out by gender, the survey shows that female coffee drinkers prefer lattes (22%) over a regular cup of coffee (19%), reach for raw sugar (14%) before Splenda (9%), and half-and-half (26%) before skim (19%). And second to making coffee at home or work, they most often buy from large national coffee chains (31%).

As for guys, they favor a regular cup of joe (30%), followed by espresso (14%). A majority (57%) prefer to not add sweetener, while 14% choose raw sugar. Nearly half of men say they like their coffee black (42%), but when they do add the white stuff, half-and-half is the top choice (20%). And when they aren’t brewing at home or work, men are more likely to purchase coffee from smaller chain or single location coffee houses (23%) vs. a large national chain (20%).

Learn more about this year’s results and find out where to buy your own perfect cup here.

Posted by Jamie Tredwell, Zagat