Per Capita Tea Consumption

Tea has become more popular in the United States over the past decade for two reasons. Firstly, hot drinks have generally become more popular, pushing up the consumption of drinks like tea and coffee. Second, the health benefits of tea, especially in comparison to the health concerns of coffee, have caused some coffee drinkers to switch over to tea. However, both coffee and tea have recently lost consumption due to the rise in popularity of energy drinks. Nevertheless, tea consumption did not decline significantly as a result of the recession. In fact, tea consumption actually increased in 2008 when consumption of many other consumables declines. Furthermore, although a marginal decline occurred in 2009, the fluctuations were not beyond historical norms. According to data from the USDA, per capita consumption declined from 0.99 pounds per person in 2011 to 0.86 pounds per person in 2014, respectively, as the world price of tea increased. However, this trend has reversed in more recent years; IBISWorld projects per capita tea consumption to increase at an annualized rate of 0.5% over the five years to 2025.