European’s are feeling the pressure of the bad economy. Due to unemployment, wage cuts and an increase in taxes, many Europeans are cutting expenses, including coffee. They are cutting down their trips to the local coffee shop and also buying cheaper beans to make coffee at home.
“Since the beginning of the year most of our regulars cut their coffees from around four to two a day,” said Luigi Cinquini, owner of a café in the center of Milan. “Sometimes, instead of getting a cappuccino or other types of more expensive coffees, they just have an espresso. This is the effect of the crisis.”
Europeans still consume the most coffee per capita in the world. However, due the the down economy, they are seeking out cheaper roasts. The once coveted arabica coffee is being traded in for robusta, which is a cheaper option.
Whatever is being said is probably just a fad, Europeans usually drink more coffee during colder months and the blog could be related to climatic change due to summer months. I suppose European cities like Milan do see this type of change because of the weak Italian economy, but you wouldn´t say this change affects bigger coffee drinking countries like Germany, where everybody likes to drink around 6-8 cups of coffee during the day.