EMPIRE COFFEE

Northern Advocate, 5 November 1931, Page 4

EMPIRE COFFEE

According to the report on the marketing of coffee issued by the Imperial Economic Committee, only one person in Britain drinks coffee to every twelve who drink tea. Most people will probably be surprised to learn that the total annual consumption df coffee comes to only three-quarters of a pound a head, whereas each member of the population drinks on the average nine and a quarter pounds of tea. Tea is, in fact, as the “Times” recently remarked, firmly established as the predominant beverage throughout the country, and in London hardly any of the famous old coffee-houses of the first quarter of the eighteenth century are now left. For the coffee industry, which has been hit like other trades by the prevailing depression, there is some consolation in the fact that but,for the high quality of coffee grown in the Empire it would have suffered still more seriously than it has. Thanks to the reputation which Empire producers have gained for the general excellence of their output, London has come to be regarded as the chief market in Europe for the best grades of coffee. Of the gross imports that reach the London market nearly fifty per cent, is re-exported to other countries, most of which goes to Germany. The coffee-drinkers of the United Kingdom 'ar - mainly those who eare only for the finest quality and are comparatively few. The general public prefer tea not only because it is cheaper,, but on account .of the firm hold that it lias taken of the national taste, and the Economic Committee have come to the# conclusion that the chances of any eqnsiderable increase in the consumption (of its rival by the people of Great Britain are not good.