As a nation who runs on caffeine, Britons are drinking approximately 98 million cups of coffee every single day.
Some would even go as far to argue that a cup of java has overtaken tea as the UK’s favourite brew.
Its soaring popularity has led to an explosion of barista chains up and down every high street in the country.
There are more than 22,000 coffee shops in Britain – the equivalent of one for every 3,000 people – and they are expected to outnumber pubs by 2030.
Between them, they rake in beyond £10billion annually from selling caffeine-hungry Brits lattes, flat whites and espressos.
There are six big brands which dominate the high street battle to make your morning coffee – with the majority of towns having at least one: Costa Coffee, Starbucks, Pret a Manger, Caffè Nero, Greggs and Gail’s.
It has been an eventful year for these big beasts of coffee – with major CEO shake-ups, controversial subscription changes and backlash to store openings dominating the headlines for much of 2024.
With this in mind, take ‘s ultimate poll to determine which of these major coffee chains should be crowned the nation’s favourite.
For the vast majority of the UK, the names dominating their high streets are Coca-Cola-owned Costa Coffee (which owns 26 per cent of the branded stores), cult hero Greggs (24 per cent) and US giant Starbucks (12 per cent).
All three have seen humongous growth in recent years, with Costa opening just over 600 stores since 2014.
Costa is the UK’s biggest chain with 2,640 stores, ‘s own audit shows, employing 18,412 people.
The company was originally founded by Sergio Costa in London in 1971 as a small roastery in Newport Street catering to specialist Italian coffee shops.
It was acquired by multinational hotel and restaurant company Whitbread in 1995 and then sold to The Coca-Cola Company in January 2019 in a deal worth $4.9 billion.
But whilst the company continues to expand at a rapid rate, it has not all been plain sailing for the brand this year.
In August, Costa found itself in hot water when the mother of a 13-year-old who died after drinking a single sip of hot chocolate from one of their cafes slammed the company for treating allergy training as a ‘tick box exercise’.
An inquest found that Hannah Jacobs died following both a ‘failure to follow the processes’ and a ‘failure of communication’ between Costa staff and Hannah’s mother.
Abi Duyile, Hannah’s mother, said ‘unacceptable’ allergy training ‘is really not taken seriously enough’.
She added: ‘Allowing people who serve food and drinks to retake an allergy training test 20 times is not acceptable. Treating allergy training as a tick box exercise is not acceptable.’
But if your high street does not have a Costa, then it is almost guaranteed to have a Greggs.
The bakery chain – famed for its steak bakes and sausage rolls – sees almost £2 out of every £100 spent in the hospitality industry splurged on their baked goods.
Analysts Panmure Gordon said it was a 40p increase on the previous figure, and they expect it to double in the next two years as Brits continue to gorge on their products.
Greggs announced earlier this year that it was continuing with its ambitious plans to open a store in every town in Britain with 160 being mooted for this year.
With the new store openings this would take the total number of Greggs bakeries in Britain to more than 2,600.
The exact locations of the new outlets are not yet known by the brand, which is synonymous with sausage rolls, but said they plan to give customers more convenient access to its stores.
This year also saw Pret A Manger bring an end to its popular subscription service, which offered five free coffees a day for £30 a month.
The deal had been running for the last four years and offered people any hot or iced Barista-made drink up to five times a day for £30 a month.
There was also a 20 per cent discount off the rest of its food and drink menu.
But the membership scheme was axed in September for what Pret is describing as a ‘simpler offer’ of five half-priced drinks a day for £10 a month.
Club Pret was first introduced in the autumn of 2020 at £20 a month in a bid to get more people back to the office following the coronavirus lockdown.
The discount on food was also culled as it was ‘something we never really got comfortable with’, Pret’s UK managing director Clare Clough said.
‘We know this is a change. But with Club Pret subscription, our coffees, teas, Coolers and iced drinks will continue to be the best offer on the high street, and at a much more accessible price than the £360 a year people have to pay for the current scheme,’ the message read.
The new deal is priced at £5 a month for existing and new Club Pret subscribers until March 31, 2025, when it will double in price.
It means subscribers will be paying £205 a month for a £3.90 latte if they were to take advantage of the deal and get the full amount five times a week, compared to the £30 they used to pay.
The Pret brand was used alongside the Greggs name by researchers Sheffield Hallam University to settle the age-old debate on where England’s North-South boundary really lies.
The Greggs-loving North, according to the team’s calculations, begins at the Watford Gap and stretches diagonally across the country to Cornwall. Meanwhile, the Pret-obsessed South comprises most of the East of England (but only some of Norfolk).
One of the biggest and most controversial coffee chain expansions of 2024 has been that of Gail’s – which has been billed the ‘new Waitrose’ because it’s become the ultimate sign of gentrification.
Since entering the high street’s coffee war in 2005 with its debut outlet in Hampstead in north London, Gail’s has ballooned to 143 stores. The overwhelming majority are in London, or on the outskirts in leafy commuter towns.
But this year the posh bakery chain, known for its sourdough and cinnamon buns, has faced a couple of high street revolts to its plans to open more stores.
The arrival of a Gail’s in a town is a boost for property prices and a sure indicator that the area is on the up and up.
But for some locals, the introduction of the brand threatens their individuality.
In November, residents in Primrose Hill raised concerns that their picturesque shopping hub could soon be ‘steamrollered’ by plans to open a new branch of the upmarket bakery store.
The new café is set to take over from an independent delicatessen, which was forced to close due to entering liquidation, meaning Gail’s will have three outlets within a 10-minute walk from each other.
Whilst some hope the new store will bring more customers to the area, community campaigner Phil Cowan claims it ‘represent[ed] yet another rung on the ladder towards identikit retail environments’.
The month prior, furious residents in Walthamstow started a petition to oppose the coffee chain opening a shop in the East London enclave, calling for the protection of their community’s unique identity.
Despite receiving more than 1,8000 signatures, the cafe’s opening went ahead anyway.
Whilst they continue to march on with their expansion plans, managers at Gail’s do not consider themselves a chain.
In an interview with trade publication British Baker, Marta Pogroszewska said she believed ‘scale’ was an uncomfortable term and the company will always focus on being a ‘neighbourhood bakery’ rather than a chain.
The company has also earmarked ten potential drive-through locations in London as part of their quest to gain more territory.
The North American model of drive-thru coffee stations is becoming increasingly popular in this country, with Starbucks already operating 284 of them at motorway service stations and beyond.
In 2024, the US coffee brand announced a major strategy shake-up, which saw them hire the ‘Lionel Messi of the restaurant industry’.
Upon his appointment, new chief executive Brian Niccol admitted the chain’s stores were inconsistent and customers were waiting too long for their coffees.
Mr Niccol, 50, promised to reform customers’ in-store experience and ensure food and drinks were delivered on time.
His appointment in September came after two consecutive quarters of declining sales.
In the letter, published online, the new CEO outlined four areas he intended to focus on during his first 100 days in charge.
He pledged to ’empower’ baristas to take better care of customers, promising they will have ‘the tools and time’ to deliver hand-crafted drinks.
Mr Niccol said the chain would focus on ‘getting the morning right’ and delivering food and drinks on time.
He added he wants to return Starbucks to a community coffeehouse – making them more inviting with comfortable seating and a ‘clear distinction’ between sit-in and takeaway service.
Caffè Nero also made some big announcements this year, purchasing the independent coffee house chain 200 Degrees in October.
The Nottingham-based business, set up in 2012, is the fifth brand to join the Nero Group – which already includes Harris + Hoole, Coffee#1, Aroma and FCB Coffee.
Nero Group founder and Group CEO Gerry Ford said: ‘200 Degrees has a solid, loyal customer base and has developed a strong regional position.’
‘Our intention is to support 200 Degrees to continue its growth journey and allow the brand to operate separately alongside the other brands in The Nero Group,’ Mr Ford added.
The chain also teamed up with supermarket Waitrose to offer all myWaitrose members one free hot drink per day – including americanos, lattes and cappuccinos, as well as tea.
There are, of course, some reasonable conditions.
You can only redeem the offer in Waitrose stores with self-serve machines (which are stocked with coffee from the Nero Roasting Company) and you’ll need to bring a reusable cup.
You’ll also have to make a purchase and scan your myWaitrose card at checkout to activate the offer.
Away from these major businesses, the UK’s independent coffee shop market is also booming, with an estimated 12,212 outlets.
Data from Allegra, which runs the World Coffee Portal – described as the industry’s ‘Bible’ – showed the UK’s independent coffee shop market is also booming, with an estimated 12,212 outlets.
But, as a whole, only another 992 stores are expected to open between 2024 and 2029, meaning the sector is growing at a significantly slower pace.
Combined, it means there are around 22,400 cafes in Britain currently. However, this total is expected to sit just shy of 25,000 in five years’ time and excludes non-specialist coffee chains such as McDonald’s and department store cafes like M&S and Waitrose.
But it’s not all roses for the UK’s coffee industry.
The sector is facing an ever-increasing problem – from Costa to your neighbourhood cafe, everyone’s costs are rocketing.
Poor coffee bean harvests in Brazil and Vietnam, as well as supply chain disruption from global warfare, drove coffee bean prices to hit an all-time high of £3,360 ($4,370) a tonne last summer.
Consultancy Safras and Mercado reported last month that 81 per cent of the year’s crop from Brazil, the world’s largest producer, was already harvested.
This meant that just 19 per cent of the crop was left to last the rest of the year, driving up supply costs.
As a result, some roasters are currently paying £772 over market price to secure a beans supply in the coming months from Vietnam, the world’s second-largest producer.
The average cost of a 12oz (350ml) latte is now £3.51, up 9 per cent in a year – and this is set to rise further as the ‘£5 coffee’ era appears to be closing in.
This appears to be as a result of a cocktail of environmental reasons spanning the planet’s weather systems and the financial markets.
Climate change is scything through coffee bean harvests, with disrupted rainfall patterns leading to both droughts and floods.
The farmers that collect the harvest are beginning to demand higher wages for their work and more and more companies are emphasising the need for sustainable bean practices, which adds further expense at all stages of coffee’s lengthy and complicated supply chain.
Once the shops in the UK get the coffee, they have their own cost of living crisis to contend with.
Since 2021, higher energy bills, rent and staffing costs have also meant higher coffee costs.
But Jeffrey Young, founder and chief executive of Allegra, said that the UK’s coffee shop industry is continuing to grow in lockstep with the price pressures.
He told : ‘You can’t really separate daily British culture from going to have a coffee.
‘This is a daily product that is an affordable luxury for many, not for everyone. They are also more prevalent, and it’s part of the way we socialise and live our life.’
He continued: ‘Despite some very strong economic headwinds, squeezed consumer spend and trading uncertainty, the UK coffee shop market – and especially branded coffee chain segment – has remained very resilient.’
Mr Young added that the industry has a ‘very bright future’ in the UK, given the massive diversification of the products on offer.