Coffee Culture - Social Aspects

Social Aspects

Many social aspects of coffee can be seen in the modern-day lifestyle. By absolute volume, the United States is the largest market for coffee, followed by Germany and Japan. Canada, Australia and New Zealand are other large coffee consuming countries. Tim Hortons is Canada's largest coffee chain, making millions of cups of coffee a day. The Nordic countries consume the most coffee per capita, with Finland typically occupying the top spot with a per-capita consumption in excess of 10 kg per year, closely followed by Norway, Sweden and Denmark. Consumption has also vastly increased in recent years in the traditionally tea drinking United Kingdom, but as of 2005 it was still below 5 kg per year. Turkish coffee is popular in Turkey, the Eastern Mediterranean, and southeastern Europe. Coffeehouse culture has a high penetration in much of the former Ottoman Empire, where Turkish coffee remains the dominant style of preparation.

Coffee has also been important in Austrian and in French culture since the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Vienna's coffeehouses are prominent in Viennese culture and known internationally, while Paris was important in the development of "café society" in the first half of the 20th century.

In some countries, notably in northern Europe, coffee parties are a popular form of entertainment. Besides coffee, the host or hostess at the coffee party also serves cake and pastries, sometimes homemade.

Coffee plays a large role in much of history and literature because of the large effects the coffee industry has had on cultures where it is produced or consumed. Coffee is often mentioned as one of the main economic goods used in imperial control of trade, and with colonized trade patterns in "goods" such as slaves, coffee, and sugar, which defined Brazilian trade, for example, for centuries. Coffee in culture or trade is a central theme and prominently referenced in much poetry, fiction, and regional history.