Every morning, all around the world, more than 2.25 billion cups of coffee are consumed each day. And I am one of those drinkers as I am sure if you are reading this, you are too. We can’t start the day without that cup, in whatever form. I either fire up my Saeco PicoBarista and pull a cappuccino, feeling like I am in Rome or something like that.

Or I drop a scoop of beans into my Baritza Virtuoso grinder, one of the best and most reliable versions, and slowly make a pourover, with my new Vario V6 02 funnel, with the waves on the slide to slow down the coffee and let it brew. Poured Propeller’s Inca Peruvian brew today. Nice and floral, lives up to the description. 

Coffee first came to Europe through Venice. Because of their vibrant trade with North Africa, it was through these Venetian merchants that coffee was introduced to the rest of Europe. In 1600, Pope Clement VIII, baptized the drink – making it more acceptable to European markets.

In 1652, Pasqua Rosee (the proprietor) and Daniel Edwards (a trader in Turkish goods) opened the first reported coffee shop at St Michael’s Alley in Cornhill, England. Coffee became so popular, that within 100 years, at least 3,000 coffee houses were operating there. In France, coffee became a popular drink for the Parisians by 1670. Vienna had its first coffee shop open in 1683. In a short time, coffee and coffee houses spread throughout Europe. Coffee had arrived as a popular drink, and a traded commodity.

I can trace my coffee obsession to one particular Seventies day in New York’s Greenwich Village. My college friend Art Becker and I were wandering the streets of the then still-hip enclave, feeling very Bohemian, when we came upon a smell.

A strong coffee odor. But stronger and deeper than anything my mother’s morning percolator brew ever gave off (she stuck with that for pretty much her whole 94 year old life, despite my protests). “It’s how I like it,” she’d say. The life-changing fragrance came from Shapiro’s, an old time roaster that supplied Village’s many coffee houses and espresso joints in the Village.

A huge roaster was groaning as it made circles with the beans and the scent wafted everywhere in the store. It was transformational. I didn’t know from grinding my own beans or all the gear that came with the Third Wave coffee revolution, after Starbucks changed appreciation for coffee’s potential and there was a new standard for taste and a deeper love for the espresso technique, even though it’s now been besmirched with all the sugary variations: pumpkin spiced latte, dulce de leche. 

Art and I realized we could not only take ground coffee in a bag with us but he’d also send it to our school in Vermont, Bennington College. We didn’t know what we were doing and put it in a percolator, but it was one magnitude better than anything we had at the College or anyplace else. Thank you, Shapiro’s; it’s not there anymore but of course there are numerous places here, there and everywhere touting that they have the freshest, most exotic beans. And some do. 

• The stats of coffee consumption are staggering by the way. 
• 3 in 4 Americans drink coffee every day (74%)
• 49% of people drink 3 to 5 cups of coffee a day 
• 32% of people purchase coffee from a coffee shop 1 to 3 days a week, with many spending $20 or less a month
• 56% of people agree that drinking coffee benefits their health 
• 39% of people report Starbucks coffee is their favorite brand

The United States, number one on the list, consumes 26,651K bags while Canada slurps down 3,929K. 

In terms of pounds per person, the smallest countries are the largest

1. Finland (26.5 lbs) (3 times the amount of the average American)

Coffee is an integral part of Finnish culture. With average coffee consumption more than 20% higher than the next country on this list, they are claiming the top spot with ease. Coffee is so important that days are literally defined by the coffee breaks they will take.

2. Norway (21.8 lbs)

There is no debating the love Norway has for its coffee. Coffee is a major part of a Norwegians’ daily life and with coffee shops lining the streets of their most populous cities, it’s very easy to keep this habit going strong. Some attribute the insanely high coffee consumption to alcohol prohibition in the early 1900s since it was during this time that coffee consumption started to skyrocket.

3. Iceland (19.8 lbs)

I have a funny suspicion that the coffee consumption here can be linked to long periods of almost total darkness and a climate that is notoriously cold. Either way, Iceland has developed a great reputation across the specialty coffee world. If you’re in any major city, you will see a bunch of cozy, locally owned coffee shops that are a far cry from the sterile chain shops you might find in other countries.

Cappuccinos and lattes are tied for America’s most popular coffee beverage, followed closely by plain espresso and cafe mocha. 41% of coffee drinkers use a drip coffee maker, followed by single-cup systems (27%), cold brewing (9%) and espresso machines (8%)

Fourteen billion espresso coffees are consumed each year in Italy and Italians consume approximately 3.7 Kg of coffee per capita I’ve never met anyone who drinks two cappuccinos or more in a day. For espresso, an average Italian has three cups per day.

Four of 10 people oscillate between a minimum of two cups and a maximum of three, while the same number consumes three to four cups of coffee a day. Over 270,364 people work as baristas, and over 57.5% of these baristas have 10 or more years of experience. No wonder the coffee is so good there. 

In short, there’s nothing quite like sitting down with a cup of coffee, either by yourself at the breakfast table, or with a friend at a café. It’s a moment of bliss, at all times.

So now you know everything you ever wanted to know about the world of coffee. Future posts will explore all the places in the world coffee is grown, and the remarkable places like the Coffee Express Co. that offer these coffees and why despite being a coffee connoisseur, I like Tim Horton’s.  I don’t care about the blowback. I just do.