America’s love affair with coffee continues, notes NCA
Two-thirds of American adults drink coffee each day, surpassing past-day consumption of tea, juice, soda, and bottled water, and increasing by nearly 7% compared to 2020. Every American coffee drinker consumes, on average, 3 cups per day, says a new report from the National Coffee Association (NCA).
At home grabs the top spot for the most popular place to prepare coffee, with 71% of past-day coffee drinkers having coffee prepared at home only in 2025, an increase from 63% in 2020. For 13% of previous-day coffee consumers, the workplace was their most popular out-of-home consumption location, followed by eating places (12%) and in transit (11%).
According to research by the NCA, specialty coffee consumption is gaining, though not at the expense of traditional coffee consumption levels. Between 2020 and January 2025, the number of American adults drinking specialty coffee increased significantly, from 39% to 46%, marking a nearly 18% rise, according to the Spring 2025 National Coffee Data Trends (NCDT) report, conducted in January 2025 by Dig Insights on behalf of the NCA.
At the same time, traditional coffee consumption remained relatively stable, with 42% of adults reporting they had a cup in the past day in 2025, compared to 43% in 2020. Out of every 100 cups of coffee Americans drink, 59 are classified as specialty coffee, while the remaining 41 are traditional brews.
Drip coffee still tops at home, but other machines are making headway
Drip coffee makers remain the most common brewing method in U.S. households, with ownership rising to 62% of adults in 2025, up from 58% in 2020, according to the NCA data. However, other coffee setups are gaining traction.
Single-cup brewers are now found in 42% of homes, up from 40%, while instant coffee has seen a notable increase to 35% (from 27%). Bean-to-cup machines are now present in 15% of households, up from 10% five years ago. Other methods include French presses (12%, down slightly from 14%), espresso machines (12%, up from 8%), slow-drip cold brew setups (11%, up from 7%), and pour-over brewers (6%, up from 5%).
Temperature matters
Among the respondents, the most popular non-espresso-based beverages were cold brew coffee (18%), frozen blend (16%) and nitro coffee (5%).
The full report can be purchased from NCA.
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Linda Becker | Editor-in-Chief
Linda Becker is editor-in-chief of Automatic Merchandiser and VendingMarketWatch.com. She has more than 20 years of experience in B2B publishing, writing, editing and producing content for magazines, websites, webinars, podcasts, newsletters and eBooks, primarily for manufacturing and process engineering audiences. Since joining Automatic Merchandiser and VendingMarketWatch.com, Linda has developed a new appreciation for the convenience services industry and the essential role it plays. She is dedicated to serving readers by covering the latest news in the vending, office coffee service and micro market industry. She can be reached at 262-203-9924 or [email protected].
