Rise and grind Australia. A recent poll has reignited the coffee wars of the land down under, with Melbourne's cafe culture taking the blue ribbon.
Between 2010 and 2014, the number of Australians over 14 years of age cafe-hopping in an average three months rose from 53.7 per cent to 56.8 per cent, while ownership of coffee machines increased from 28.2 per cent of households to 36.9 per cent over the same period, results from Roy Morgan Research found.
Despite Sydney being the most likely capital city for residents to buy fresh coffee and the least likely to buy instant coffee, Melburnians were the most likely to visit a cafe for a brew.
In an average three months, more than 63 per cent of Melburnians will visit a café for coffee or tea at least once, ahead of Hobart residents (62.7 per cent) and Sydney folks (61.0 per cent).
Melburnians are also the more consistent cafe hoppers, with almost 12 per cent going 16 or more times in a three-month period. Sydney was close behind on 11.3 per cent.
Owner of Sydney cafe Coffee Alchemy, the 2014 Best Coffee winner of the Good Cafe Guide, said she was not surprised that Melbourne beat Sydney in terms of cafe visits.
"Melbourne has always had a really vibrant dining and cafe culture and I guess people have opted to go out more," said Hazel de los Reyes.
"They have cultivated eating and drinking specialty coffee really quite well and I think in Sydney a whole lot more people have invested their money on coffee making equipment."
She said her baristas at Coffee Alchemy are often surprised at how many coffee beans go through the scales, purchased by customers for grinding at home.
"A whole lot of people still take beans home and make coffee but that doesn't stop them from having coffee outside home as well."
Grinding coffee in home-owned machines was most common in Perth, with 39 per cent of households owning a machine, perhaps a by-product of the city's reputation for some of Australia's most expensive cafe coffees.
