To commemorate International Coffee Day, Costa Coffee and GKI Digital conducted a joint survey on coffee consumption habits at work. The study revealed that half of those who drink coffee at work get it free from their employer, while the rest pay for their daily caffeine intake in the workplace or bring their own coffee from home.

Quality coffee at work has become an important employee expectation, which employers should take into account as it contributes greatly to employee well-being. On International Coffee Day, Costa Coffee encourages all employees to celebrate it with a great coffee – at work!

As coffee is the second most consumed drink in the world after water, it rightly deserves its own holiday. International Coffee Day originated in Japan 38 years ago, but we have only been celebrating the holiday of this highly popular drink on 29^th of September since 2009.

Legend has it that International Coffee Day is on this date to be a reminder that after the long summer autumn has arrived, and we have to get back to work – and we all know coffee breaks are an integral part of work. To celebrate International Coffee Day, Costa Coffee and GKI Digital conducted a survey on coffee drinking habits at work.

Do workplaces have good coffee?

Costa Coffee wanted to find out whether it was important for respondents to drink good quality coffee at work and 73% of them agreed with this statement. What makes a good coffee? 65 percent answered that it is the harmoniously balanced aromas and flavours, and 36 percent said that strength is what matters.

Who pays for coffee at work?

According to the joint survey conducted by Costa Coffee and GKI Digital, 45% of respondents regularly drink coffee at work during the day. Every second respondent spends a maximum of HUF 3,000 on coffee at home, 38% spend even more than that, while 54% of those who drink coffee at work do not have to pay for it: they drink as much as they want.

However, not everyone takes this opportunity: although more than half of the workplaces offer coffee as a free benefit to employees, only 41% take advantage of this – the rest of them prefer coffee that suits their taste as well as their quality expectations, and they are willing to pay for it themselves.

Around a quarter of respondents take their own coffee to work and prepare it using the machine that is found there. One tenth of them take their coffee in a thermos to their workplace every day.

What type of coffee do we drink at work?

The research by Costa Coffee and GKI Digital highlights a new trend: we consume different types of coffee at different times of the day. In the workplace, coffee drinkers prefer stronger espressos (86%) in the morning, while in the afternoon, right after lunch break, they prefer cappuccino (53%), latte macchiato (56%), and flavoured coffee (74%). Many of them mix up high caffeine content with the intensity of the coffee.

But there is no correlation: intensity marks the strength of flavour on the package, which depends on where the coffee was grown, how it was processed and how the raw material was roasted. The higher the number, the stronger the flavour; the lower the number, the softer, silkier the coffee.

Costa Coffee's coffee expert Iván Gávris explains the factors that determine the strength and intensity of coffee in this video about coffee intensity.

How long is the coffee break?

Many people drink coffee on the way to work or immediately after they arrive to the workplace: the survey found that most people drink takeaway coffee from a café or petrol station while they are heading to work (75%), and a quarter of respondents take homemade coffee with them and drink it on-the-go.

The line between work and personal life have blurred greatly since widespread adoption of home office, but many people presumably drank coffee without a coffee break beforehand: according to the Costa Coffee survey, 27% of respondents do not take a break from work to drink coffee.

Women are even more likely to do so (30%) than men (23%).

21 percent of respondents take a coffee break for 5-10 minutes a day, and 13 percent for 10-15 minutes a day.

The reason behind these short coffee breaks may be routine and the need for refreshment via a quick caffeine hit – aka functional coffee consumption –  rather than a few minutes of selfcare during working hours.

On International Coffee Day, Costa Coffee encourages all employees to take a break for a few minutes and enjoy their daily coffee, because great coffee is worth celebrating every day.

GKI Digital’s research, commissioned by Coca-Cola HBC Hungary, was conducted with the participation of 2721 respondents.

Source: 
Costa Coffee's Press Release