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Coffee year-end summary: what important events have happened in the coffee industry in 2016?

Published: 2026-02-24 Author: World Gafei

Last Updated: 2026/02/24, In the global range of drinking habits from instant to freshly ground coffee, currently ground coffee accounts for more than 87% of total coffee consumption, while instant coffee accounts for less than 13%. In China, instant coffee is the largest segment of the coffee consumption market, accounting for 84% of the market share, while the market share of ground coffee is only about 16%. In contrast, the growth rate of the domestic instant coffee market is actually not as fast as that of the freshly ground coffee market.

The transition of drinking habits from instant solution to fresh grinding

Globally, ground coffee accounts for more than 87% of total coffee consumption, while instant coffee accounts for less than 13%. In China, instant coffee is the largest segment of the coffee consumption market, accounting for 84% of the market share, while the market share of ground coffee is only about 16%. On the contrary, the growth rate of the domestic instant coffee market is actually not as fast as that of the freshly ground coffee market, mainly because consumers are more inclined to consume coffee beans and go to cafes because of the change in consumer habits. The industry expects the average growth rate of instant coffee sales to slow to 8.3% in 2012-2017.

Cold Coffee & the New favorite of nitrogen Coffee Circle

As a new trend of coffee in Europe and the United States in recent years, "cold extracted iced coffee" has become a new online celebrity in the coffee industry this summer; and under the strong market influence of Starbucks and other well-known coffee brands, "nitrogen coffee" has also become a hot search word in the coffee industry this year. The black coffee series that looks like a minority has become the mainstream of the market.

Cold extraction upsurge

Currently, 10 per cent of US consumers say they regularly drink iced coffee / cold coffee, according to the Foodservice Coffee Market Trends in the trend survey. In fact, 14% of coffee drinkers said they had tasted cold coffee in cafes or restaurants. Sales of cold-extracted coffee reached $7.9 million between 2014 and 2015, an increase of 115%, according to Mintel. Compared with 2010, the five-year increase reached 339%.

Nitrogen coffee

In addition to cold coffee has become the new darling of the coffee industry, its upgraded version of nitrogen brewing coffee is also another major trend. Nitrogen coffee (Nitro Coffee/Nitro Cold Brew) is a new type of coffee that only began to rise this year. As the name implies, nitrogen coffee is based on cold brewed coffee (Cold Brew) and injected with liquid nitrogen (Nitrogen) to blend coffee with nitrogen to make a unique coffee full of fine bubbles and taste like dark beer.

Stumptown Coffee Roasters, a boutique coffee shop in the United States, is the leader of this craze. As early as 2013, Stumptown began trying to imitate dark beer coffee, and finally they came up with the idea of injecting nitrogen. The first step in making coffee is similar to that of cold-extracted coffee. Coffee beans are ground and extracted with cold water, a process that takes about 18-20 hours. After that, pour the coffee into a pressure bucket and inject nitrogen to make the two blend perfectly. When it finally appears, consumers will see a "faucet" device similar to beer served in a bar-the barista turns on the faucet to provide you with a cup of nitrogen cold extracted coffee. During a recent visit to coffee shops in Hong Kong, Xiaobian found that almost every cafe will serve nitrogen coffee. Although the audience of this product is still very limited, nitrogen brewing coffee will be on the mainstream stage in the future.