Millennials to Thank for All Time High Coffee Demand

As a kid, my mom took us to visit our grandparents multiple times a week, and I remember watching her and my grandma sit at the kitchen table and chat over coffee. I always wanted to be big so that I could sit at the table, sipping coffee and talking about big people stuff.  My mom, however, was very strict about coffee, and I didn’t even have my first sip until I was almost 18. I’ve been hooked ever since though.

I’m just slightly out of the millennial demographic, but I’m not surprised by this stat at all. According to Mashable, Dattassential, millennial love coffee so much that the global demand is at an all time high.

Research has found that 44% of coffee drinkers in the United States are between the ages of 19 and 34.  What I think is interesting though is that over the last eight years, coffee consumption has skyrocketed among millennial, but it’s dipped significantly among adults aged 40 and older.

While I wasn’t allowed to even think about drinking coffee until I was nearly 18, the average millennial started drinking it regularly at the age of 15. Before them, the average age to start drinking coffee was 17.

In my family, we weren’t allowed to drink coffee, soda, or other caffeinated drinks because our parents were sure it would stunt our growth (and although I didn’t drink coffee until I became an adult and I still stand at just 5 feet- clearly, it didn’t work for me!), but we know now that’s not the case.  Experts generally suggest kids stay away from coffee because too much caffeine can cause problems like the jitters, high blood pressure, headaches, and more. So it was surprising to learn that the same research that discovered millennial are addicted to coffee learned that some young people started drinking it before they turned 10.

[via Mashable]