Tea today[edit]
In 2003, DataMonitor reported that regular tea drinking in the United Kingdom was on the decline.[32] There was a 10.25 percent decline in the purchase of normal teabags in Britain between 1997 and 2002.[32] Sales of ground coffee also fell during the same period.[32] Britons were instead drinking health-oriented beverages like fruit and/or herbal teas, consumption of which increased 50 percent from 1997 to 2002. A further, unexpected, statistic is that the sales of decaffeinated tea and coffee fell even faster during this period than the sale of the more common varieties.[32] Declining tea sales were matched by an increase in espresso sales.