The business behind the world of caffeine!
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Why should I think about the multi‑billion‑dollar caffeine industry while drinking my coffee?
Now, as you enjoy your morning coffee, do you ever spare a thought for the multi billion euro industry that's behind that delicious energizing liquid in your cup? Caffeine has become a major commodity over the last few decades, with the coffee market alone estimated to be worth as much as five hundred billion dollars, and it's still growing. But it's not only coffee taking in millions of our money every year. In recent times we've seen a boom in matcha, energy drinks, even Caffeine supplements and caffeine enhanced foods, and let's not forget the simple mug of tea. So, what exactly is the reality of the business behind our much loved caffeine? To tell me more about the grind behind our previous brews.
I'm joined by Adam McGuire from the business desk. Morning, Adam. How are you? I'm very well. Well, I'm better now that I've got an another cup of coffee. But anyway, uh we're talking about one of the oldest commodities in the world, aren't we?
Yeah yeah, I mean like tea, which uh you know, one of the the the main delivery systems for caffeine, if we can call it that, is is thousands of years old. Claims of it being made uh into a drink in China as far back as two thousand seven hundred BC. There are archaeological records of cups with tea residue from a few hundred years BC. So very, very old uh um even if we don't know exactly how old. Matcha, which is essentially a type of green tea, uh has also been around for a long time. Records of it being made during the Tang dynasty, so that's kind of mid to late first century. Coffee is actually the kind of baby of the pack, at least as as a drink. It would have been eaten in Ethiopia for centuries.
Then there are records of a drink being made from the root of the coffee plant in the 10th century. The earliest known example of the drink being made from beans was was in Yemen in the 1400s. So a lot later than tea and matcha maybe that lag owing to the fact that to prepare a nice you know cup Of coffee, you need to do a bit more work if to roast the beans and you know do all this kind of preparation. Um, but as coffee took off, then most of the initial supply came through the Emini port of Mocha, which is where we get the name for the mocha pot and the chocolate coffee drink, the the Mocha as well. Yeah. And that concentration of supply uh initially at least points to an interesting point about caffeine, because there are many, many plants around the world that contain the chemical.
You have coffee tea.
How did tea, coffee and matcha originate and spread around the world?
You have uh garana, tonka, cacao, uh, cola nuts, which is where we get uh Coca-Cola from. Uh none of them though share a common origin. They all evolved and developed uh the chemical completely independent of each other. Uh and it's thought that that happened because caffeine it's a relatively simple chemical, it acts as a natural pest repellent, so advantageous to the plant to have it there somewhere. Uh and it also turns out that the energy boost we associate with caffeine isn't confined to humans. Studies have shown that even bees get an energy boost uh and a kind of mini reward from consuming it which makes them work harder and that also benefits the pants in a different way. So that's probably why it evolved all over the world.
Okay, so it's no s surprise given all that that has become so in demand around the world.
No, I know I mean like within a few hundred years, really uh tea and coffee were were a global phenomenon. Uh the tea market obviously grew out of uh China. The coffee market would have kind of largely originated in the Middle East. Turkey was the original hub before it spread across Europe. And and as Ireland was part uh was a British colony at the at the time, it meant it was linked to that trade network of the British Empire. So the likes of tea and coffee got here after making its way to to England. Uh the first record of a coffee house in Ireland was in the Liberties in Dublin, roughly around 1660. At that stage, there would have been hundreds of coffee houses in London, though the drink would have been kind of the preserve of the wealthy at the time.
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Chapters
7 chapters
1
Why should I think about the multi‑billion‑dollar caffeine industry while drinking my coffee?
0:00–2:03
2
How did tea, coffee and matcha originate and spread around the world?
2:03–4:21
3
What is the current global market value of coffee, tea and matcha?
4:21–6:25
4
Why are Arabica and Robusta priced so differently and how does that affect growers?
6:25–8:03
5
What recent weather and energy‑cost shocks have driven coffee prices up in Ireland?
8:03–9:20
6
Why are cafés switching to matcha drinks and how does it impact their margins?
9:20–10:30
7
Where does the caffeine used in energy drinks, supplements and cosmetics come from?
10:30–10:45