Start Your Day Off Right with a Big Glass of … Pop?

By Olivia Leigh in Food on Jan 18, 2007 8:51PM

Although we’ve written extensively about our love for the city’s tea and coffee offerings, chances are, if you wander into the fine Chicagoist offices around 10 a.m. on any given day, you wouldn’t find us drinking one of these beverages. No, sirree, you're much more likely to see us sipping a can of pop as we blog away.

According to a recent story in the Trib, many people have jumped on the formerly taboo pop-for-breakfast bandwagon. The New-York based consumer research firm NPD Group found that the number of people who pop open a can of soda for breakfasts outside the home has almost doubled in the past 15 years, from 7.9 percent in 1990 to 15.1 percent. Furthermore, the amount of coffee ordered with breakfast outside the home has dropped a quarter, from 48.7 percent to 38 percent. Inside the home, however, the number of soda drinkers is drastically less, with only 2.4 percent who chowed down at home admitting to consuming a carbonated beverage.

Pop drinkers cited in the article offered up a number of reasons for their beverage choices, including caffeine addictions and the so-called “refreshing” feeling of the bubbles hitting the back of their throats.

The increase in morning soda drinkers is largely due to young adults (18-to-25 year olds), where consumption is the heaviest, perhaps rebelling a bit from the “no pop at the breakfast table” rule that many parents enforced.

As part of our morning pop drinking ritual, we’ve often had other people in the office call our habit “gross,” and shake their head wondering how in the world we could ever drink pop before 11 a.m. What about you? Pop for breakfast: a refreshing morning treat, or nasty habit?

Image from Grace.