Specialty coffee, as a high-quality, highly customizable option, is trending upwards. Of all the coffee types that fall under the specialty or gourmet category, espresso-based drinks saw significant growth in 2016. This is greatly due to their popularity among drinkers aged 18-24, 44% of whom drank an espresso-based drink in the past week, according to the National Coffee Association 2016 Trends Report.
And while almost two-thirds of millennials are buying more regular and specialty coffee beverages from convenience stores this year than last year, specialty coffee increases its sales power when paired with other hot trends that blur the lines of traditional mealtime and eating occasions. Breaking free from traditional mealtimes is pushing coffee into new dayparts.
Snacking Shakes Up Mealtimes
As millennials drive the snacking fad into a full-blown movement, the number of coffee-appropriate occasions increases. Freeing coffee from an official daypart and offering it during a new special time of day makes choosing specialty coffee intuitive.
Blurring the lines between meal times calls for something more than just the drip coffee that dominates breakfast. Over 70% of consumers agree that anything can be considered a snack these days, which means coffee can be a snack in its own right. But since the majority of hot-dispensed beverages are purchased as a meal complement, the true value in optimizing the snacking trend is by pairing food and beverage.
All-Day Breakfast, All-Day Coffee
When breakfast extends to all meals of the day, so does coffee. All-day breakfast, having taken hold in the last year, is still a special occasion that warrants a specialty beverage. Consumers are already tuned into this phenomenon because “more than half (57%) of consumers ages 18 to 24 years old say that breakfast combo meals, often featuring a coffee beverage, are important offers at different foodservice outlets and impact their decision to visit that shop or restaurant.”
From morning until late night, there truly isn’t a daypart that isn’t touched or improved by the addition of coffee. Whether coffee is featured as a snack or a sandwich supplement, there are endless ways to entice coffee drinkers to your establishment.
This post is sponsored by FETCO