Study Puts 1 Cup of Coffee at 140 Liters of Water, With 99% Used on Farms
Updated
Updated · spacedaily.com · Aug 17
Study Puts 1 Cup of Coffee at 140 Liters of Water, With 99% Used on Farms
1 articles · Updated · spacedaily.com · Aug 17
Summary
A standard 125-ml cup of coffee carries a modeled water footprint of about 140 liters, according to widely cited work by Ashok Chapagain and Arjen Hoekstra based on Dutch consumption and trade data.
More than 99% of that total is tied to growing coffee plants, not brewing or milling; the original study put wet processing at roughly 0.34% of the water used in cultivation.
The estimate also found tea at about 34 liters per serving, and said coffee required more than 1,100 drops of water for each drop of beverage produced.
Critics say the headline figure can mislead because it combines rain-fed "green" water with surface and groundwater and pollution-linked "gray" water, masking big differences in local water stress.
The broader takeaway is that sourcing matters more than the water in the cup itself, because similar footprint totals can reflect very different conditions in coffee-growing regions.