Postbellum Coffee and Tea Consumption in the United States

Coffee was not always ubiquitous in the United States. In 1790, the U.S. imported 4 million pounds of coffee and 3 million pounds of tea (see Table 1). Even with the negative connotations tea had appropriated in the patriotic fervor of the American independence era (most famously demonstrated at Boston’s 1773 “Tea Party”), coffee was only slightly more popular than tea among citizens of the new nation.^[1]  By 1821 (data for 1820 is unavailable), Coffee imports eclipsed tea by 17 million pounds. From 1790 to 1851, coffee imports had increased by a staggering 545 percent while tea imports had decreased by 4 percent. Coffee became king in antebellum America, but still had a long way to go.

Table 1. Antebellum Coffee and Tea Imports

Year	Coffee Imports (lbs)	Tea Imports (lbs)			Population	Coffee Per Capita (lbs)		Tea Per Capita (lbs)
1790	4,000,000		3,000,000	3,929,000			1.02	.76
1821	21,000,000		4,000,000	9,618,000			2.18	.42
1851	153,000,000		17,000,000	23,261,000			6.58	.73

In the five years preceding the opening of hostilities between Northern and Southern Americans, they had consumed over 1.1 billion pounds of coffee, with an average of 7.6 pounds of coffee imports per capita dwarfing teas imports of 137 million pounds (an average of .91 pounds per capita).^[2]  The Civil War greatly impacted American coffee imports and consumption. There was no comparative impact on American tea imports (see Table 2). Tea imports from 1856-1860 and 1861-1865 were identical at 137,000,000 pounds (though the price increased by 6 percent during the war years).^[3] Pendergrast attributes the reduced coffee consumption to the government’s blockade of Southern ports and a 4-cent levy imposed on imported coffee.^[4]

Table 2. Civil War Coffee and Tea Imports

Year	Coffee Imports (lbs)	Tea Imports (lbs)			Population	Coffee Per Capita (lbs)		Tea Per Capita (lbs)
1861	184,000,000		25,000,000	32,351,000			5.69	0.77
1862	123,000,000		25,000,000	33,188,000			3.71	0.75
1863	80,000,000		30,000,000	34,026,000			2.35	0.88
1864	132,000,000		37,000,000	34,863,000			3.79	1.06
1865	106,000,000		37,000,000	35,701,000			2.97	0.56

The coffee trade blossomed after the cessation of hostilities, nearly reaching 1860 import numbers in 1866 and logging a 77 percent increase from 1866-1870 over 1861-1865. With the opening of southern ports, tea imports also increased in the same period by 55 percent. Still, the clear American preference for coffee in postbellum America continued, as seen in Table 3. With dwindled supply, coffee prices in New York City averaged 20 cents per pound in the Civil War years, topping at 30 cents per pound in 1863. The five-year average cost to the consumer of coffee per pound returned to near pre-war price by 1870 (12 cents a pound).^[5]  

Table 3. Civil War Years (1861-1865) Coffee and Tea Imports compared to (1866-1870)

Year	Coffee Imports (lbs)	Tea Imports (lbs)	Coffee & Tea Per Capita
1861-1865	625,000,000	137,000,000		3.70	0.77
1866-1870	1,106,000,000	212,000,000		5.77	1.11

            In his excellent book, Uncommon Grounds, Mark Pendergrast observed, “The Civil War gave soldiers a permanent taste for the drink.”^[6]  While the total per capita consumption during Civil War was 3.7 pounds per citizen, that number is calculated by the entire population of the United States (including the Southern States), where coffee was so highly scarce (due to the previously mentioned blockade) that it “at one point traded at $5 a pound in Richmond, Virginia.”^[7] Pendergrast asserts (without footnote) that “by 1864, the government was buying 40 million pounds of green coffee beans.”^[8] If that figure is accurate, a third to a half of all coffee during the civil war was in the cups of Union Soldiers. According to Pendergrast’s calculations, “Each Union soldier’s daily allotment included one-tenth a pound of green coffee beans that, translated into annual consumption, was a whopping thirty-six pounds per capita.”^[9] Union Soldiers may have returned from war highly caffeinated and in love with coffee.

            Per capita imports steadily increased from 1865-1900. Tea imports also increased, but generally at a significantly lower rate (see Table 4). Coffee import prices generally remained static (from 10-20 cents a pound), while tea’s value plummeted (near 30 cents a pound to 13 cents a pound by the century’s end). 

Table 4. Antebellum, Bellum & Postbellum Coffee and Tea Imports by 5-year average

Year	Coffee Imports (lbs)	Tea Imports (lbs)	Coffee & Tea Per Capita (lbs)
1855-1860	1,132,000,000	137,000,000		7.60	0.91
1861-1865	625,000,000	137,000,000		3.70	0.81
1866-1870	1,106,000,000	212,000,000		5.77	1.11
1871-1875	1,518,000,000	301,000,000		7.07	1.40
1876-1880	1,807,000,000	318,000,000		7.49	1.32
1881-1885	2,346,000,000	374,000,000		8.68	1.39
1886-1890	2,592,000,000	421,000,000		8.58	1.39
1891-1895	2,872,000,000	453,000,000		8.57	1.35
1896-1900	3,798,000,000	408,000,000		10.32	1.11

Mass marketing pioneers like John and Charles Arbuckle, Chase & Sanborn, and Jim Folger took advantage of the post-War economic boom. They did much to capitalize on the coffee habit Union soldiers acquired, and the coffee withdraws the rest of the nation endured through the war years. These entrepreneurial pioneers did much to make America a culture that ran on coffee and left tea behind.

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^[1]. For an outstanding overview of Revolutionary American attitudes towards tea, see Tom Standage’s A History of the World in 6 Glasses, 203-206, and 219-220. According to Standage, “American colonists’ enthusiasm for [tea] was undimmed, prompting them to go to great trouble to find alternatives” (220). Tom Standage, A History of the World in 6 Glasses (New York: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2005).

Standage, Tom. A History of the World in 6 Glasses. New York: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2005.

^[2]. U.S. Bureau of the Census, Historical Statistics of the United States, Colonial Times to 1957 (Washington D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1960), 7, 549.

^[3]. Ibid.

^[4]. Mark Pendergrast, Uncommon Grounds, 3rd Trade Paperback Edition ed. (New York: Basic Books, 2010), 46.

^[5]. Commodity Research Bureau, CRB Commodity Year Book (New York: Commodity Research Bureau, Inc., 1941), 164.

^[6]. Pendergrast, 46.

^[7]. Ibid.

^[8]. Ibid.

^[9]. Ibid.

Bibliography

Commodity Research Bureau. CRB Commodity Year Book. New York: Commodity Research Bureau, Inc., 1941.

Census, U.S. Bureau of the. Historical Statistics of the United States, Colonial Times to 1957. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1960.

Pendergrast, Mark. Uncommon Grounds. 3rd Trade Paperback Edition ed. New York: Basic Books, 2010.

Standage, Tom. A History of the World in 6 Glasses. New York: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2005.