Coffee Is About To Overtake Tea As Britain’s Favourite Hot Drink

Even Prince Charles loves a cuppa

It is a drink that has become synonymous with the British identity - but now the popularity of tea in Britain is becoming seriously threatened by coffee.

It’s been revealed that Britons are now drinking almost two and a half cups of coffee for every cup of tea - which equates to 2.1billion versus 874million per year.

It’s thought that the explosion of chains such as Starbucks and Costa is a reason for the rise, with tea consumption falling by 19 percent since 2010.

Specifically, coffees such as Americanos and cappuccinos are believed to be the most popular, with brewed or filtered varieties only equating to 23 per cent of sales.

But cappuccinos are the most popular drink of choice - with an eye-watering 486million glugged by Brits last year.

The figures were revealed by researchers NPD, and also show that Britain still has some catching up to do with the rest of Europe when it comes to coffee consumption.

Unsurprisingly, Italy tops the table with 4.78billion cups sold every year, ahead of France at 2.27billion.

Muriel Illig, of NPD, claimed that tea’s status as the national drink was becoming increasingly threatened.

‘As coffee climbs then tea is teetering – it really needs to fight back,’ she said.

‘The share of tea in a country famed for its love of this beverage has slipped significantly and the thirst for speciality coffees completely swamps demand for speciality teas.

‘There’s no quenching our thirst for the three most popular speciality coffees – cappuccino, latte and Americano – and those three account for around two thirds of all the coffee we buy away from home.’

And with that, we’re off to stick the kettle on.