How has the pandemic affected the coffee world?
Since Covid-19, people in the UK have been instructed to stay at home, leave our offices behind along with our usual trips to our favourite coffee place. With limited options, we are now discovering more independent coffee shops, buying from different places and trying new flavours such as the rise of green coffee. It seems that we as coffee-drinkers, are evolving into conscious consumers by being aware of our decisions when buying products. We see our choices as a source of power that makes our ordinary habits worthwhile, to not only help the environment but improve our general health and well-being.
What happened to the coffee market?
For high-street cafes, revenue has decreased rapidly, tea and coffee revenues at Costa, falling by 17%. Despite other coffee shops turning to Deliveroo and Uber Eats to drive sales, the majority have instead turned to their local supermarkets, totalling an extra £24 million in tea and coffee purchases, and an overall 13% increase of people drinking coffee. As it shows, coffee is considered an essential household product in the UK, but it appears that we would rather shop locally than go out to our usual place to get coffee.
Have we changed our coffee-consumption?
More time spent indoors means more time to reflect on our choices and explore new ways of making coffee. One example is the notorious Dalgona coffee, inspired by Tiktok videos that was the social media highlight of 2020. Brewing at home has unintentionally made us become our own baristas, having the power and independence to choose what coffee we buy and how we make it.
Coffee experts such as Esquires Coffee and Coffee Extraction, predict a few trends that may be on the horizon for 2021. One prominent trend is sustainability. We are more inclined to support local businesses and are investing more time to know more about their story and the origins of their products. We want to know that the coffee we are drinking is ethically sourced, where farmers get fair wages and where coffee is being produced with less environmental impact. More people are becoming aware of how damaging corporate businesses have on the environment, so we as individuals want to start a sustainable journey, by carefully choosing what products we buy.
Another rise is a turn to coffee subscriptions and online purchases of coffee. This not only allows limited workers to work safely in social-distancing conditions but has made it easier to save independent businesses, often those selling unique coffee. Research reveals that 20% of people are less likely to visit shops due to Covid-19 and are 40% more likely to experiment with their brewing methods at home. Seeking different ways to make our coffee leads to the question of how can we make our daily cup of coffee different and healthier?
Will there be a rise of green coffee in the future?
The existence of green coffee has always been around and its benefits are no stranger to the world. Actor and former wrestler Dwayne Johnson (also known as ‘The Rock’) has promoted the new ZOA Energy Drink, containing healthy doses of natural caffeine from green tea extracts and green coffee beans that improves performance. Also, in a 2017 study on participants with obesity, it shows that adding green coffee to your diet along with a healthy diet and exercise, results in positive weight loss than just doing exercise alone.
“Raw” coffee beans or green coffee, are believed to be the healthiest supplement for weight loss. Research suggests that drinking ‘raw’ or unroasted coffee beans has essential antioxidant benefits that improves blood pressure and cholesterol levels. Green coffee has less preservatives that are usually added during the roasting process and so in turn, have a longer shelf life than a normal roasted coffee packet would.
With the upcoming rise of green coffee and the change of our coffee-behaviours at home, we hope to see a positive change in our health and the environment, all starting first, with the choices we make as consumers. Most of us want to make sure that we are doing our part to recover the damage of mass production before Covid-19, that for some, has only really come to light during the lockdown of our everyday shops.