Capsules, pods and increasingly technological machines are redesigning the daily coffee ritual. And traditional ground coffee loses over 13%
Once upon a time there was the soft rumble of the mocha, the scent that slowly rose from the kitchen and an almost liturgical domestic gesture, handed down from generation to generation. If coffee remains the inviolable fixed point in the routine of Italians, it is its daily architecture that creaks.
The latest cross-sectional findings confirm a deeper and faster turning point than expected YouGov And Circana: a solid market in volumes, but crossed by a silent genetic mutation, where the historic aluminum coffee maker progressively abdicates in favor of speedpressure and comfort of capsules and pods.
The new coffee consumption trends
And it is precisely the growing diffusion (globally) of espresso machines that is leading consumers towards a coffee experience increasingly oriented towards excellence, customization and variety. According to a recent annual study by Kantar on coffee consumption habits, quality in the cup represents one of the main drivers of choice (40%), together with possibility to customize the preparation (34%).
There is also a growing desire to recreate the bar experience at home: 35% of consumption occasions made with a home coffee machine involve the use of the integrated cappuccino maker.
This evolution is accompanied by a growing attention to sustainability: data NIQ in fact, they highlight how consumers who are more sensitive to environmental issues are over-represented among owners of coffee machines, confirming a increasingly strong link between the search for quality, premium experience and attention to environmental impact.
How the market has changed
According to the latest survey by YouGovcoffee has reached a penetration of 86% among Italian families, equal to 22.6 million households who have purchased it at least once: the highest figure in the last three years. The frequency of purchases is also growing, rising from 10.5 to 11 times a year between 2021 and 2025, as is the average family expenditure, which went from around 59.5 to over 81.8 euros per year in the same period.
However, it is on the front of the preparation tools that the data shows the clearest change. Possible machine ownership reached 50.6% of households in the fourth quarter of 2024, an increase of 2.9 percentage points on the previous year. In parallel, 26.4% of families now own a dedicated pod machine. The trajectory of traditional ground coffee is of the opposite sign, declining both in terms of penetration and average purchase: the clearest sign of a technological transition now underway.
The analysis of sales volumes developed by Circana For NESCAFÉ Dolce Gusto confirms the extent of the movement. In 2022 the ground coffee – the format historically associated with the moka – represented 67.5% of total consumption in cups; in 2026 the share drops to 54.4%, a decline of 13.1 percentage points, with a volume decreasing by 16% over the five years. A fact that, read together with that of YouGov on the ownership of machines, draws a coherent picture: the traditional coffee maker has not disappeared from Italian kitchens, but it weighs less and less in daily consumption choices.
Because the moka leaves room for pods and capsules
Above all, the formats linked to the new machines are gaining ground. The waffles they double their weight, going from 4.5% to 10.1% of total volumes (+134% in five years); the capsules they rise from 15.1% to 20.5% (+41.6%); The coffee beansdriven by the spread of automatic machines, grew from 6.8% to 8.9% (+36.8%). A particularly indicative signal comes from the aluminum capsule sector, which more than doubles its relative weight (from 2% to 4.4% of volumes) with a growth of 133.6%, confirming how the technological evolution of machines proceeds hand in hand with greater attention to the sustainability of materials.
According to the analysis Circanathe two phenomena are mirror-connected: it is precisely the constant growth in capsule volumes, year after year, that explains much of the erosion of the share of traditional ground coffee. In the same period of time in which capsules gain over 5 percentage points of share of overall consumption, ground coffee loses over 13: a transfer of consumption that confirms how the rise of capsule machines is among the main drivers of the progressive farewell to the mocha in Italian homes.
