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History Society: Coffee Culture
Professor Jonathan Morris from Hertfordshire University gave an entertaining and enlightening talk to the History Society on Tuesday 24 March with the intriguing title “Cappuccino Conquests”. Prof Morris has researched the business, economic, social and cultural factors connected with the consumption of coffee, first concentrating on Italy and then examining the growth of the American and UK market. Prof Morris described a "world revolution in coffee drinking", and how the UK preference has gradually moved from tea, as the ‘national drink’, to coffee.

Prof Morris made some interesting statements from his research. For instance, we learned that there are now more than 10,000 coffee shops in the UK and the South East has the greatest proportion; Costa is the leading high street chain; the average stay in coffee shops is 30 minutes; espresso comprises 97% of orders in Italy and 3% in the UK (we like milk in hot drinks!); traditional hospitality companies are moving from concentrating on alcoholic beverages to coffee – café latte outsold Newcastle Brown Ale in 2007! Filled with these fascinating facts, we thanked Prof Morris for his revealing insights and joined him in sampling real espresso coffee.