If you think coffee in the U.S. is expensive, have you been to South Korea?! If you're a coffee addict like me, it doesn't matter if it's hot, iced, cold brew, a latte, cappuccino, you name it, if it has coffee you crave it everyday. Some countries/cultures engage in coffee drinking more than others and therefore the price of coffee varies depending on demand. According to SavingSpot, here in the United States the average cup of coffee is about $3.77. That price can fluctuate slightly depending on what part of the country you're in but generally that's around the price Americans usually pay for a cup of coffee. I can definitely attest to that as someone who regularly drinks coffee and enjoys the luxury of ordering coffee here and there at local cafes.
Fun facts about coffee culture here in the United States:
When coffee 1st came to America: Early 1600s when Jamestown was originated and the British first introduced it amongst colonists.
When America turned into a coffee culture: In 1773 after the Boston Tea Party when colonists revolted against the heavy tax on tea imposed by King George III
Consumption:
- 64% of Americans drink coffee every day (Source: Reuters)
- Americans drink about 400 million cups of coffee every day (Source: E-Imports)
- Americans drink about 146 billion cups of coffee every year (Source: Coffee-Statistics.com)
Have you ever wondered where coffee came from and how people discovered its energy boosting effects? Can you imagine a time before coffee?! Well you can thank Ethiopia for the discovery of coffee. Legend has it that a goat herder named Kaldi noticed his goats become so energized after eating berries (what we call coffee beans) from a certain tree that his goats would not go to sleep that night. It was from that moment on that coffee started integrating into various cultures after word spread to the Arabian peninsula about these "energizing beans" and took off from there.
The first recorded "coffee culture" was in 15th century Yemen, just across the Red Sea from Africa, and not too far inland to Ethiopia where coffee is believed to have originated, so it makes sense.
First usage of coffee: Mystics, monks, and other religious leaders first used coffee as a way to stay up and focus on prayer for long periods of time.
Public coffee house started emerging in the Middle East and people frequented them and began engaging in all sorts of social activities. In a way coffee brought increased socialization to many cultures, not just the Middle East.
According to extensive research around the globe by SavingSpot and Statista, these are the key findings about coffee:
Key Findings
- In South Korea you’ll pay the most for a cup of coffee– on average, $7.77 a cup.
- Iran pays the least– In Tehran expect to pay $0.46 for a cup of coffee.
- Luxembourg is the world’s biggest coffee consumer, with a whopping 11.1 kilos consumed per capita in a year.
- Nepal, India and Pakistan are the world’s biggest coffee abstainers. Each country drinks less than 0.1 kilos per capita a year.
To see how much various cultures consume coffee, refer to this map:
Curious about how much a cup of coffee is in Italy? Or Australia? Or say Chile? Check out this world map of the prices of a cup of coffee across the globe:
Again, being a huge coffee drinker, I'm glad I do not live in South Korea! And I thought I was splurging by paying like $5 at Starbucks, damn! Well I find this information to be fascinating not only with learning about the history of coffee but about how various cultures across the globe enjoy coffee! I hope you found it just as fascinating as me...if you take away anything from this article, just remember that aside from South America and some select areas of Europe, here in North America on average we're paying on the lower end of coffee prices compared to the rest of the world! That's something you can feel good about.
-Producer Lightning