Britain - a nation of coffee and wine drinkers?

[Duck59]

I appreciate that members of this forum come from all around the world, but there's a fair smattering of Brits on here and here's something I found interesting. It's (bear with me, it does get interesting) the Family Expenditure Report from the Office of National Statistics.

Well, not all of it, maybe, but there are some intriguing bits. Britons spent 60% more on coffee than tea last year. The average weekly wine budget is now more than double that of beer. I must concede that these figures are not reflected by what happens in this house; tea and beer remain the drinks of choice here.

Here's an oddity. British households spend 140% more on blueberries and raspberries than they do on bananas. Even odder when you consider that these berries grow commonly in the wild, whereas I am not aware of any wild banana plantations here in the UK.

Perhaps alarmingly, we (not this household, admittedly) spend as much on confectionery and ice cream as we do on fresh fruit.

There is a great deal more, for anyone with the willpower:

http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/family-spending/family-spending/2015-edition/index.html

 

[classic33]

Farm in the North-West of Scotland grew bananas, outside.
Featured on either Countryfile or one of Ben Fogles' shows.

I'll go through the list later.

 

[kgord]

Coffee is grand, long live coffee as a morning breakfast drink. It is full of antioxidants and can help prevent Alzheimers. My two grandparents who were heavy coffee drinkers lived into their 90's...so I am all for a morning cup of joe.

 

[MrsDangermouse]

Well, not all of it, maybe, but there are some intriguing bits. Britons spent 60% more on coffee than tea last year. The average weekly wine budget is now more than double that of beer. I must concede that these figures are not reflected by what happens in this house; tea and beer remain the drinks of choice here.

Its an interesting report, but don't forget they are looking at expenditure rather than quantity so you can't really draw conclusions about peoples' lifestyles from it.
As an example: by quantity I drink at least four times more tea than my husband does coffee...but my tea is cheap (a couple of pennies per cup) whereas his coffee is much more expensive - around 40p per cup. It would be wrong to assume that as a household we consume more coffee than tea just based on how much we spend on it.

 

[Morning Glory]

Its an interesting report, but don't forget they are looking at expenditure rather than quantity so you can't really draw conclusions about peoples' lifestyles from it.
As an example: by quantity I drink at least four times more tea than my husband does coffee...but my tea is cheap (a couple of pennies per cup) whereas his coffee is much more expensive - around 40p per cup. It would be wrong to assume that as a household we consume more coffee than tea just based on how much we spend on it.

Very good point. I thought the same. Coffee is outrageously expensive unless you buy it in Aldi or Lidl (I do!). But I drink very little coffee and prefer tea. The wine stats don't surprise me. its become so commonplace here for people to drink wine (particularly at home in the evening) The amount of wine on supermarket shelves is amazing - and there is more wine than beer. This wasn't the case 35-40 years ago when only 'middle-class' people drank wine. Now its become commonplace to see folk in soaps like Eastenders, Emmerdale or Corries cracking open bottles at the drop of a hat. The Pub may still be the 'centre of narrative discourse' in soaps but for how long?

However, on the bright side, the real ale movement has really gathered pace recently and there are micro breweries popping up all over the place - plus, Wetherspoons offers excellent real ales at unbeatable pub prices.

 

[Shadow]

D59 - I think you must be suffering from insomnia to read an ONS report! But thank you for doing the hard work for us. No doubt it will prove to be endless fodder for C33 while we sleep at night!

One does wonder how these stats are produced. e.g. 'expenditure' - does this include all expenditure from visits to the pub or local restaurant or just for home consumption? If the former, then I am surprised the numbers are not greater for coffee and wine consumption. When going out for a meal, it is my experience that folk have a coffee at the end rather than tea. And look at all the coffee shops that litter the high street compared with tea shops. Costa Coffee has over 1700 stores in the uk and over 1100 more in the world - second only to Starbucks in size. (according to wiki). A nice little earner for Whitbread, which used to be a half decent beer company.

And MrsDm is spot on re 'expenditure'. Continuing her theme, blueberries and raspberries are much more expensive than bananas. Can anything be actually deduced from this, except that Brits spend more on the former than the latter?

And MG is right about wine - it is drunk by all sorts these days. Tesco is in all likelihood the world's largest single purchaser of wine. (The LCBO in canada used to claim this but no longer does. Costco is likely to overtake Tesco in the near future, as the 'mercans continue to increase their total and per capita consumption).

And I'm glad I have never personally contributed to these reports as the wine stats would increase dramatically!!!

 

[Pat]

I am a wine drinker and my daughter who I live with is a beer drinker. In this household there is more beer consumed than wine. 3 members of a 4 person household drink tea, we consume a lot of tea weekly. For special occasions I made a blend of black tea and apple cinnamon spice tea that goes very quickly, even the one person that does not like tea drinks the blended tea.

 

[Duck59]

D59 - I think you must be suffering from insomnia to read an ONS report! But thank you for doing the hard work for us. No doubt it will prove to be endless fodder for C33 while we sleep at night!

One does wonder how these stats are produced. e.g. 'expenditure' - does this include all expenditure from visits to the pub or local restaurant or just for home consumption? If the former, then I am surprised the numbers are not greater for coffee and wine consumption. When going out for a meal, it is my experience that folk have a coffee at the end rather than tea. And look at all the coffee shops that litter the high street compared with tea shops. Costa Coffee has over 1700 stores in the uk and over 1100 more in the world - second only to Starbucks in size. (according to wiki). A nice little earner for Whitbread, which used to be a half decent beer company.

And MrsDm is spot on re 'expenditure'. Continuing her theme, blueberries and raspberries are much more expensive than bananas. Can anything be actually deduced from this, except that Brits spend more on the former than the latter?

And MG is right about wine - it is drunk by all sorts these days. Tesco is in all likelihood the world's largest single purchaser of wine. (The LCBO in canada used to claim this but no longer does. Costco is likely to overtake Tesco in the near future, as the 'mercans continue to increase their total and per capita consumption).

And I'm glad I have never personally contributed to these reports as the wine stats would increase dramatically!!!

I'd like to point out that I sleep very well...in fact, this thread was conceived as a result of an article in The Guardian that essentially summarised the report in question, though I concede that I did browse the report.

While I'd agree with your analysis, I would question the idea that Whitbread was a "half decent beer company." Whitbread specialised in taking over independent breweries only to close them down. Local brewers such as Wethereds (Marlow), Castle Eden (Co Durham), Flowers (Cheltenham), Fremlins (Faversham) and Chesters (Salford) were just a few that were steam-rollered by Whitbread.

 

[Shadow]

I would question the idea that Whitbread was a "half decent beer company

I thought that might catch your eye. I concede to your greater knowledge on such matters. I presume all the 'big boys' were doing something similar at the time, '60's & '70's? Before that, when the Whitbread family were running the show, was it not producing half decent brews?

Glad to hear you are sleeping well.

 

[Morning Glory]

I'd like to point out that I sleep very well...in fact, this thread was conceived as a result of an article in The Guardian that essentially summarised the report in question, though I concede that I did browse the report.

While I'd agree with your analysis, I would question the idea that Whitbread was a "half decent beer company." Whitbread specialised in taking over independent breweries only to close them down. Local brewers such as Wethereds (Marlow), Castle Eden (Co Durham), Flowers (Cheltenham), Fremlins (Faversham) and Chesters (Salford) were just a few that were steam-rollered by Whitbread.

We now have Fremlin Walk (a relatively new shopping destination) on the sight of the old brewery in Maidstone.

The old entrance to the brewery.