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\u201cTea has my heart,\u201d Liz Coleman explained as she sank into a chair under the gold-painted ceilings of the Grand Caf\u00e9 in Oxford, England. \u201cBut I can\u2019t live without coffee.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ms. Coleman, 31, was getting her caffeine fix from an almond milk latte that she sipped during a break from a nearby conference this month. As a British woman of Persian descent, tea looms large in her home life, she said, but when she is out, it is always coffee.<\/p>\n
Tea is woven deep into Britain\u2019s cultural fabric, having arrived in the 1650s after Dutch traders brought it to Europe from China. Centuries of tradition made it the nation\u2019s favorite hot drink. But coffee, a longtime rival, has increasingly challenged that status, and a recent survey suggested it had finally ousted tea from its prime spot, setting off a war of statistics as the two industries defend their beverages.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
So, is coffee really Britons\u2019 new national drink?<\/p>\n
For cafe patrons in Oxford \u2014 where historians have traced some of Britain\u2019s earliest coffeehouses, and where a new specialty coffee scene has exploded in recent years \u2014 it is complicated.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
The Grand Caf\u00e9 is on the site of a coffeehouse established in 1650<\/a>. On a recent morning, the cafe\u2019s owner, Ham Raz, explained that tourists often ordered loose-leaf tea with their sandwiches, scones and cakes, but that British customers typically had coffee.<\/p>\n When he first came to Oxford 30 years ago, he said, \u201cBritish people didn\u2019t want to take as many risks.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNow everybody is doing coffee,\u201d added Mr. Raz, 51. \u201cAnd people\u2019s behavior is changing.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The recent coffee boom can be traced to the late 1990s and early 2000s, when mass-market coffee chains, including Britain\u2019s Costa Coffee and American brands like Starbucks, kick-started a national espresso obsession.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n But it is perhaps Oxford\u2019s newer coffeehouses, driven by their patrons\u2019 preferences for high-grade, artisan coffee, that can offer a window into the beverage\u2019s rising claim on Britons\u2019 routines \u2014 and wallets. At the Missing Bean cafe, Liz Fraser was scribbling in her notebook and enjoying a double-shot cortado.<\/p>\n Ms. Fraser, 48, an Oxford-born travel writer, distinctly remembers her first cup of \u201cproper\u201d coffee.<\/p>\n \u201cI had my first cappuccino in the U.K. in 1998, just after my first daughter was born,\u201d she said, adding that it \u201cfelt like stepping into a different country.\u201d Until that point, she had had only instant coffee.<\/p>\n Eighty percent of households in Britain still buy instant coffee for in-home consumption, particularly those 65 and older, according to the British Coffee Association, though ground coffee and pods are rising in popularity, particularly among younger generations. The country drinks about 98 million cups of coffee per day.<\/p>\n The Missing Bean has been serving up cups of the hot stuff since 2009. Since then, specialty coffee culture has boomed as an alternative to the chains on nearly every corner, said one of the cafe\u2019s founders, Ori Halup.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cI would very proudly say back then that we were the only good coffee you could get here, and now I can give you 10 great places to go for coffee in Oxford,\u201d he said, adding, \u201cAnd that option is amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The Missing Bean has grown to include five cafes \u2014 some outside Oxford \u2014 a roastery, a bakery and an online shop that ships across Britain. Baristas behind the cafes\u2019 counters give each drink time, care and attention, like creating intricate art for lattes in the foamy milk as they pour.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s something that you can\u2019t do at home, which always adds magic,\u201d Mr. Halup said. \u201cMost people don\u2019t have an espresso machine and grinder and everything else.\u201d<\/p>\n But he acknowledges that tea still looms large in the national psyche. \u201cI think people drink more tea than they do coffee still, just in a different way,\u201d he said. \u201cYou drink tea at home because it\u2019s practically free compared to a coffee out.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Mr. Halup is only one among many skeptics of the recent reports that Britain\u2019s growing coffee culture has elbowed tea out.<\/p>\n A study published in August<\/a> by Statista was small \u2014 only 2,400 people \u2014 but 63 percent of respondents said they regularly drank coffee, with only 59 percent regularly choosing tea.<\/p>\n Sharon Hall, the chief executive of the U.K. Tea & Infusions Association, said in a statement that Britons were drinking more than 100 million cups of tea each day \u2014 two million more than the estimated total for coffee.<\/p>\n Bolstering coffee\u2019s case, British shoppers bought nearly twice as many packs of coffee in supermarkets from August 2022 to August 2023 compared with tea, according to data shared by Kantar. But this evidence is contestable: A pack of 200 tea bags would last far longer than a 200-gram bag of ground coffee, which would normally make about 30 cups. The overall money spent on coffee in British supermarkets was also more than double that of tea, though coffee is typically more expensive.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Jane Pettigrew, a founder and the director of studies at the U.K. Tea Academy, said it had always been difficult to accurately track Britain\u2019s favorite hot drink. Tea, she said, has been part of the country\u2019s culture for more than 350 years, affecting social life, laws and more, and she does not see that fading anytime soon.<\/p>\n Since the introduction of mass-produced tea bags in the middle of the 20th century, Ms. Pettigrew said, \u201cthe whole romance of drinking tea and your connection to the tea you were buying and drinking disappeared.\u201d<\/p>\n But high-quality loose-leaf tea, much like specialty coffee, is also having a moment, she said, with tea shops focusing on ethical production and eco-conscious sourcing popping up around Britain.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s always been this kind of, \u2018Oh, tea is so boring,\u2019 but it\u2019s still very much part of our in-home drinking,\u201d Ms. Pettigrew said. \u201cFor so many years, they\u2019ve been saying, \u2018Oh, coffee is so much more exciting, and people are drinking more.\u2019 And I\u2019m not prepared to accept that.\u201d<\/p>\n