Online Extra: Coffee Drinkers and Their Habit

Online Extra: Coffee Drinkers and Their Habit

Buying coffee at premium coffee bars like Starbucks (SBUX ) is popular with 63% of the coffee drinkers 25 to 45. This is a worry for the big food companies, such as Kraft (KFT ), Procter & Gamble (PG ), and Sara Lee, who are seeing declining sales for their grand old brands like Maxwell House, Folgers, and Chase & Sanborn.

Sales of specialty coffees, now $10 billion today, are expected to grow 7% annually, while sales of traditional coffee brands slide downward. Maxwell House alone dropped $75 million in supermarket sales in the past two years, about one-fifth of its overall supermarket sales. Our complete findings from the survey of 25-45 year olds are as follows:

• 24% drink 13 cups of coffee or more each week.

• 77% make coffee at home regularly, and 42% said they also regularly get it at the office.

• 34% go to premium places like Starbucks when they get coffee out, while 29% favor lower-price outlets such as McDonalds (MCD ) or Dunkin Donuts.

• 86% drink traditional coffee and 26% said they drink specialty coffee drinks, showing an overlap. Some traditional coffee drinkers see specialty brews as a treat instead of a habit.

• 82% said they drink traditional coffee brands like Maxwell House and Folgers more than anything else.

• If they're brewing coffee at home, 80% make traditional coffee, while a mere 5% brew espresso. The remaining 15% whip up pricier specialty coffees.

• 63% said they go to premium cafes like Starbucks.

• 57% said they would not forego Starbucks even if they could make the same thing at home, indicating that the experience of going to a café is definitely part of the draw.

• 77% have a home-brewing machine and of that number, 89% have a traditional drip coffeemaker while the remainder have something pricier that makes specialty coffees and espressos.

• 65% of respondents said they would consider cutting back on pricey café coffee and specialty brews due to the cost.