Story: Food and beverage manufacturing

Coffee and tea consumption

New Zealand has turned from a primarily tea-drinking country to a mainly coffee-drinking country, although tea still remains popular. It was around the 1980s that coffee and tea consumption was about even at 2 kilograms per person. Since then coffee has overtaken tea – partly due to the growth of a café culture over the 1990s.

Using this item

Te Ara - The Encyclopedia of New Zealand

This item has been provided for private study purposes (such as school projects, family and local history research) and any published reproduction (print or electronic) may infringe copyright law. It is the responsibility of the user of any material to obtain clearance from the copyright holder.

Source: Ray Bailey and Mary Earle, Home cooking to takeaways: changes in food consumption in New Zealand during 1880–1990. Palmerston North: Massey University, 1993. p. 250

All images & media in this story

How to cite this page:

Sarah Wilcox, 'Food and beverage manufacturing - Tea and coffee', Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, http://www.TeAra.govt.nz/en/graph/23006/coffee-and-tea-consumption (accessed 29 March 2024)

Story by Sarah Wilcox, published 11 Mar 2010