Morning fix of coffee costs nation a cool $3 billion a year

Andrew Carswell
July 16, 2013
The Daily Telegraph

IT’S a national obsession, our drug of choice and an arguably holy pursuit of perfection. And we now pay $3 billion a year just to get our daily fix.

Such has the nation’s devotion to coffee intensified, that we now spend the entire GDP of the African nation of Eritrea on our brew of choice, be it a cappuccino in Parramatta or a soy half-strength flat white in Paddington.

It’s not just a necessary evil, but a love affair, given that 86 per cent of coffee aficionados claim to have an emotional relationship with their coffee.

Nothing quite explains the full extent to which Australians are addicted to the dark elixir than giving them a choice between another item of burgeoning addiction.

The mobile phone.
More than 1.1 million Australians would rather give up their mobile phone for a day instead of missing their morning coffee, according to the Rise & Grind survey conducted by Harris and Galaxy Research.
Harris master roaster Wayne Archer understands.

“Having been in the coffee industry for most of my life I have witnessed people going to great lengths for the perfect coffee,” he said.

The survey also confirmed that the average Australian downs 14 coffees every week, while 3.5 million drinkers admit they start their day disgruntled if they don’t get their morning hit.

Our bean worship is also developing into a hot and steamy affair at home – er, with the machine at least – with two-thirds of devotees preferring to make their coffee at home to ensure it is to their liking and consistency, and to save some coin.

The old instant solution will cost you on average $66 a year compared to our average cafe spend of $597. Almost 35 per cent of households now have an espresso machine.

Research by Canstar Blue found 68 per cent of coffee-loving Australians say they have saved a fortune on cafe-bought coffees with the purchase of their machine.