While the price of food continues to rise in the federal republic, the Germans are forever loyal to one thing, Kaffee. The buzz has never been bigger: in 2022 they drank more cups than ever before.
On July 8, 1908, a then-housewife from Dresden named Melitta Bentz invented the coffee filter by using blotting paper from her son's school jotter, with little knowledge of the stranglehold it would claim over German society. More than 100 years later it's clear, Germans don’t run on Wurst or beer, they run on coffee.
In 2022 Germans drank more coffee than ever before, that is according to market research commissioned by the German Coffee Association. On average, people in Germany are reaching with trembling hands for four cups of coffee each day. This is a considerable jump from before coronavirus when people were drinking 3,5 cups per day, and though they love their Sprüdelwasser, java outperformed both mineral water and beer in the past year.
The sub-Saharan country of Togo produces delicious earthy roasts, and Germans always want this “Togo”, that is “zum Mitnehmen”, which is “to take away” to you and I. The prevalence of this Scheinanglizismus (pseudo-anglicism) is unsurprising given the rate at which the federal republic is getting through disposable coffee cups, at 320.000 per year.
Coffee consumption outside of the home increased by around 45 percent in 2022 compared to 2021, particularly astonishing since during much of the coronavirus winter lockdown periods it felt like going for walks and drinking coffee Togo was just about the only thing Todo.
According to the German Coffee Association in Hamburg, the increase in al fresco drinking is partly thanks to the decrease of another Denglisch activity, working in Homeoffice. In 2022 more people were sipping on the way to work and during breaks or business meetings.
All in all, 2022 saw the entire population of Germany, babies included, consume 167 litres of coffee per capita.
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