Love for instant coffee is fading, replaced by café coffee both home and away

More than 4 out of 5 cups of coffee consumed in Australia are made out of instant coffee, and 6 out of 7 are consumed at home (or office). Aussies loooove their Nescafé, Vittoria and Moccona, and sipping them in the backyard.

But this is changing. The biggest growth in coffee is coming from out-of-home consumption with more and more consumers adopting the idea of café culture, according to Datamonitor in their report “Hot drinks in Australia to 2013″.

Australians prefer their coffee with milk. We also prefer to sit back and spend hours drinking coffee in a cafés making it a place for leisure and business gathering, before grabbing a cup and leave, which is why the US coffee chain, Starbucks attempt to copy the US model in Australia was unsuccessful.

Datamonitor has noticed a strong demand for high quality roast and ground coffee also in the at-home coffee consumption as consumers are seeking to find the quality and taste of cafés’ coffee at home as well.

In the tea category, consumers are showing increasing interest towards specialty tea segments such as green tea and herbal tea due to its perceived health & wellness benefits.

Datamonitor predicts the Australian hot drinks market to be in the order of A$ 1.5 billion over the next 5 years.

There is a growing interesting market for milk, coffees and cafés. In Sweden I did lots of work for the dairy farmers on the area of coffee, since it´s such a huge part of their sales.

But a warning sign for you! Don´t just look at the rational part of this trend. People don´t go to cafés just because the coffee is of higher quality. They do it because they get more than coffee. In studies I found astrong sense of being cared for, when a professional barrista spent time making every cup instead of just pouring hot water over a few beans.

Also, when brands match their product with people´s need of experiences we will see cafés of different styles, offering more than just a cuppa. In my first-stop-in-the-morning-café Skinny Dip in Bondi Beach everyone knows everyone and it´s like a little universe in itself. Right now the local MP is standing there in his dodgy t-shirt waiting for coffee, and passing by was the book publisher in a rush to get the papers. The local plumber and painter just left, getting replaced by the girl off to the office in pencil skirt and the couple in their jogging outfits. This kind of coffee shop offers not just a large soy latte, but a family. Definitely customer love.

And that is what people expect in the future, that is what makes a brand stick out from the crowd and get that mysterious connection that true love is.

Top-list, coffee consumed (kg per person and year):
1.Finland  12
2.Norway 9.9
3.Iceland 9.0
4.Denmark 8.7
5.Netherlands 8.4