Last week, the National Coffee Association released its half-yearly report on the state of coffee consumption in America, which found that out-of-home coffee had returned to pre-pandemic levels. But even with a little latte to go as a treat, people were still generally making their own coffee, with 81% of all participants who drank coffee the previous day doing so at home. Now, a recent study expands on those findings, showing that consumer demand for whole beans has skyrocketed compared with this time last year.
This new report is through the e-commerce accelerator platform Patternwho analyzed Amazon consumer purchase data from every day in 2023 and 2024 (so far) to determine how people were consuming coffee at home. They found a significant boost from Q3 2023 to Q3 2024 for at-home coffee making, and it all starts with coffee beans.
Pattern found that year-over-year demand for coffee beans increased by 46% among Amazon customers, giving it the third-largest overall percentage point boost, behind drip coffee makers with a 66% boost and espresso machines with a 50% boost. And while those two coffee-making methods don’t require coffee beans, other accessories like bean containers and coffee scales saw increases of 20% and 13%, supporting the idea that more people are taking coffee making more seriously, which typically starts with switching to coffee beans.
Interestingly, demand for coffee grinders on Amazon only grew by 3% during the same time period. This can be explained by the fact that coffee grinders are the second most desired coffee item on Amazon that Pattern tracks — right behind the very broad “coffee machine.” The already high demand makes it challenging to see these vast double-digit jumps. A 3% year-over-year boost at this volume is not insignificant, especially compared to the coffee machine, which actually saw a 1% decline.
Confirming the NCA report, Pattern found an 18% drop in demand for frigid brew coffee machines. Frigid brew – and frigid coffee drinks in general – are typically associated with coffee on the go, and the downward trend in people looking to make their own version of one of the most popular coffee drinks aligns with the NCA’s findings of out-of-home coffee consumption returning to pre-pandemic levels.
When looking deeper into what roasters can gain from increased demand for coffee beans, the results—particularly for specialty coffee brands—were mixed. While Stumptown saw the largest boost of all roasters, up 92%, similarly situated specialty roasters like La Colombe saw only a 4% boost. Intelligentsia actually shrank by 22%, while Keurig K-Cup grew by 65%.
Overall, the results show that the needle is steadily moving in the right direction. People are taking coffee more seriously and investing in the right equipment to do so. For more information, visit Pattern’s official website.
