How much coffee does an average Dutch person drink?

“Addie, how many cups of coffee do you actually drink per day?” Our sweetest intern Manouk looks at me expectantly. Since May renamed me to Addie (pronounced very American as Eèèèhdieeey), everyone uses that nickname. I am known for my coffees being strong and businesslike, that's what they call a black double espresso without milk here. Oh, and that I consume them a lot and often. In the meantime, I am eyeing all those slender girls who are slurping liters of whipped milk and cream with a splash of coffee.

I learned to drink coffee from my mother. Of course, I was allowed to try it once, but it had to be black, because you don't drink coffee with milk. That's where my coffee career began. I was thirteen then and I have been drinking coffee ever since. About five to six ‘bakkies’ a day, that's what they call it below the rivers and around Rotterdam, where I was born and raised to become an extremely black coffee drinker. Preferably the darkest roasts. I see myself as a medium coffee drinker. At breakfast, I drink one or two cups, at the editorial office another two or three, and then one more in the afternoon and, on rare occasions, in the evening. They find that a bit on the high side here, by the way. But, I don't pour any packs of milk in it, which saves quite a bit in calories.

Research shows that the Dutch are the biggest coffee drinkers in the world. With an average score of 2.4 cups per day per person, we leave the French far, far, far behind us. With their meager 1.8 cups. To achieve this per capita, you need people like me, because there’s no way those 3.8 million young people/children/babies are responsible for consuming those gallons of coffee. Oh, our Scandinavian neighbors are also doing their best, because the Finns, Swedes, and Danes are also hanging around the top regions.

And why shouldn't we drink it? I get a craving for coffee when I drive past the coffee factory in Utrecht or when the smell of a fresh cup wafts past my desk. No one proves that it's bad for you, and as long as I don't bounce through life like a speeded-up rubber ball, I can't imagine that I'm doing anyone harm with my coffee consumption. *Presses the Nespresso machine one more time very contentedly.

P.S.: Here you drink the best coffee in the Netherlands.

P.P.S.: Here you drink the tastiest coffees in Utrecht.

P.P.P.S.: And here you read why coffee is indeed good for you, ha.