Breakfast is the Germans’ favourite meal of the day

By Olivia Logan

Hot, crunchy bread rolls, boiled eggs, ham slices and coffee: The Germans have spoken and they’ve voted breakfast the most unmissable meal of the day.

Germans love to eat breakfast foods

Germans are so dedicated to their morning meal that only one in every 14 citizens skips breakfast. That is according to a new representative survey carried out by YouGov, which quizzed 2.050 Germans on which daily meal they thought was the most important.

For most older Germans - those over the age of 55 - breakfast means bread, cheese and sausages. Almost 43 percent of the older generation eat a savoury breakfast each day. Most youngsters however are branching away from the traditional and looking for some sweeter sustenance, with fruit and muesli being twice as popular among those up to the age of 24 compared to older age groups.

While it is their favourite meal, most Germans reported spending a mere 15 minutes at home on breakfast, compared to 30 minutes on dinner or “Abendbrot”. Many newcomers to Germany will be familiar with the uncooked injustice that is Abendbrot and the Germans’ dedication to cold dinners. But surprisingly, Abendbrot isn’t even a hit with the natives, with only 17 percent of respondents saying that the evening meal was the most important of the day. 

Germans are filter coffee fiends

The Germans are united by one thing as the sun comes up: coffee. 66 percent of the population enjoys a cup of java each morning. Nevertheless, they all have their preferences, 27 percent of coffee drinkers go for a filter coffee, 24 percent for coffee from an automatic coffee machine, 9 percent use coffee pads and 6 percent waste no time and choose an espresso shot.

Spoiled by the luxury of flavourful speciality coffee, the young in Germany are snubbing standard filter coffee, with only 5 percent reporting it to be their favourite brewing method. Among the over 55s however, filter coffee dominates, while the middle-aged opt for coffee from an automatic machine.

Thumb image credit: Maren Winter / Shutterstock.com

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Olivia Logan

Editor at IamExpat Media

Editor for Germany at IamExpat Media. Olivia first came to Germany in 2013 to work as an Au Pair. Since studying English Literature and German in Scotland, Freiburg and Berlin she has worked as a features journalist and news editor.Read more

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