1 cup coffee = 140 litres water?

[mrpoppy]

Stumbled across this article in The Age that links to research on the amount of water various consumer goods take to make. Coffee comes in quite high at 140L for one cup - enough to fill a bath! In these environmentally conscious times its a little unnerving to think my daily cup of coffee might be harmful for the environment. However, Im a little skeptical of the figures as surely coffee is mostly grown in regions with high rainfall so its not as if the water is being diverted from other uses? What do you guys think? Anything we can do to make our coffee drinking more water wise?

[g00se]

Re: 1 cup coffee = 140 litres water?

Sensationalist journalisim at its best.

If you do the sums though, only 40L is for the coffee, the remaining 100L is the milk.

Save the environment, drink short blacks!

[mwatt]

Re: 1 cup coffee = 140 litres water?

I would guess its quite possibly the case with wet-processed beans? Where as that figure may not be true if theyre dry-processed?

Someone who knows more about processing etc. might be better informed...

[Wine_of_the_Bean]

Re: 1 cup coffee = 140 litres water?

I reckon a dry processed Ethiopian might not be anywhere near that amount.

[GrindOnDemand]

Re: 1 cup coffee = 140 litres water?

Sensationalist journalism at its best.

If you do the sums though, only 40L is for the coffee, the remaining 100L is the milk.

Save the environment, drink short blacks!

Are you talking ml for the finished product g00se, or litres with the processing of the bean as posed in the original question? :-?

Starbucks has gone bust - a 40L bucket-of-coffees no longer on the market! - the 100L of milk added I think would perturb my tummy somewhat ;D

Agreed with Michelle & Anthony though, that dry-processed (predominantly Africans) wouldnt require the water ... as for the wet-processed, admittedly I wouldnt have a clue as to how much is used :-[

As a comparison to other commodities, though, apparently it takes 2 litres of water to make 1 litre of Coke, & 4 litres of water to make 1 litre of beer.

[kohi]

Re: 1 cup coffee = 140 litres water?

Sensationalist journalisim at its best.

Im surprised its not in the Herald-Sun then!

[Thundergod]

Re: 1 cup coffee = 140 litres water?

Theres the same amount of water on the planet with or without coffee production/consumption.

It just changes purity and form from time to time.

Ice, vapour, rain etc.

If you really want to turn yourself off drinking coffee then consider that at some stage in its lifecycle the water in your short black was probably dinosaur pee.

[gronk62]

Re: 1 cup coffee = 140 litres water?

I made two disgusting lattes this mornin from a small batch of beans I bought from the local coffee booteek. They were a different blend from the ones I usually buy and I reckon they might be stale coz the pour was a gusher and it tasted like Id run 140 litres of water through the puck.

Blah!!

Wont be buyin that crap again!!

[sdg]

Re: 1 cup coffee = 140 litres water?

Wanna save water? Eat roo instead of beef. Very tasty

Oh, and milks definitely got to go. :-/

If you really want to turn yourself off drinking coffee then consider that at some stage in its lifecycle the water in your short black was probably dinosaur pee.

TG, I fear that its been someones pee a lot more recently than that!

(depending where you live :)

[roknee]

Re: 1 cup coffee = 140 litres water?

If you really want to turn yourself off drinking coffee then consider that at some stage in its lifecycle the water in your short black was probably dinosaur pee.

that would explain some of the acidity in a south american short black  

[Martial_Monkey]

Re: 1 cup coffee = 140 litres water?

TG, I fear that its been someones pee a lot more recently than that!

(depending where you live   :)

Wasnt the UK where they say the drinking water has passed through (on average) seven kidneys before you drink it. All of them probably more recent then dinosaurs ;D

[Thundergod]

Re: 1 cup coffee = 140 litres water?

I believe South Australia is downstream from Canberra.

[beanflying]

Re: 1 cup coffee = 140 litres water?

Just another thought (scotch induced) are we talking about International Roast, Nescafe and other "high quality" coffees or Ethiopian Harrar

[g00se]

Re: 1 cup coffee = 140 litres water?

Sensationalist journalism at its best.

If you do the sums though, only 40L is for the coffee, the remaining 100L is the milk.

Save the environment, drink short blacks!

Are you talking ml for the finished product g00se, or litres with the processing of the bean as posed in the original question? :-?

Starbucks has gone bust - a 40L bucket-of-coffees no longer on the market! - the 100L of milk added I think would perturb my tummy somewhat ;D  

Agreed with Michelle & Anthony though, that dry-processed (predominantly Africans) wouldnt require the water ... as for the wet-processed, admittedly I wouldnt have a clue as to how much is used :-[

As a comparison to other commodities, though, apparently it takes 2 litres of water to make 1 litre of Coke, & 4 litres of water to make 1 litre of beer.

Im talking litres. If you check the article, it takes 200L of water to make 200ml of milk, and 140L of water to make a 125ml coffee. Assume 25ml of the coffee is a shot of espresso, which leaves 100ml of milk -> 100L to produce, and "only" 40L for the coffee.

As an asside, if you use this journos logic , it takes 2,000L of water to grow 1 square metre of grass in tropical Queensland!!!

[scoota_gal]

Re: 1 cup coffee = 140 litres water?

Wanna save water? Eat roo instead of beef. Very tasty

Speaking of which...I have a roo at the moment...er..thats another story... :-X

Suffice to say, someone was asking me what I was going to do with it...I told them (and yes, they were a city person)

"Well, were gonna grow it up and eat it."

;D

The response was stunned silence...