More adults prefer daily cup of coffee: survey

SCOTTSDALE, Arizona (Reuters) - For the first time since 1990, the percentage of adults who drink a daily cup of coffee exceeds those who drink a soft drink every day, the National Coffee Association of USA said on Saturday.

Out of nearly 3,000 adults questioned in a random telephone survey in January for the 2006 National Coffee Drinking Trends report, 57 percent said they drank coffee every day, up from 56 percent in 2006. Fifty-one percent said they drank a soft drink daily, down from 57 percent a year ago.

"Coffee is gaining a higher profile among American consumers as they enjoy an expanding menu of options amid an exploding cafe culture," NCA Chief Executive Robert Nelson said.

The amount of American adults who drink coffee at least once a week was pegged at 67 percent, down slightly from 68 percent in 2006, according to the report.

Forty-eight percent of respondents said they drank regular coffee daily, up from 47 percent a year ago. The percentage of U.S. adults who said they drank gourmet coffee daily slipped to 14 percent from 16 percent a year ago.

"(The increase) is mostly in regular coffees, not as you might expect in the more gourmet coffee beverages. We believe that this is mostly because of the way consumers are thinking about coffee. There's this classification that gourmet coffees to them are becoming much more mainstream and they are counting that as regular coffee," Bill Gottlieb, a market researcher for Starbucks Corp., told the NCA annual convention in Arizona.

The survey, which had a margin of error of 3 percentage points, has been conducted annually since 1950.

Consumer demand has climbed since the National Coffee Association began a campaign in 2005 to provide the media with science-based health information about coffee.

"In 1954, the daily consumption was at 78 percent and then there was a downward trend. In 2004, we were at 49 percent daily consumption," NCA Public Relations Committee Chair Lara Wyss said.