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Is 3 PM Actually the Peak Time for Coffee Shops? Why Do People Love Drinking Coffee in the Afternoon?

Published: 2026-01-27 Author: FrontStreet Coffee

Last Updated: 2026/01/27, For many young people today, coffee is the real alarm clock. The annoying phone ringing is just an appetizer; a rich cup of coffee is what truly gets the brain functioning. So we naturally assume that coffee shop peak hours should be around 8 to 11 AM. But as someone who lives in coffee shops (a barista), I've discovered that coffee shops actually have two peak time periods.

Why Do Coffee Shops Get Crowded in the Afternoon? Coffee cups on a table

For many young people today, coffee is the real alarm clock. Annoying phone ringtones are just the appetizer; a rich cup of coffee is what truly gets the brain working. So we naturally assume that the peak time for coffee shops should be around 8 to 11 in the morning. However, as someone who lives in a coffee shop (a barista), I've discovered that coffee shops actually have two peak times—around 11 AM and around 3 PM. The 3 PM peak lasts longer, sometimes continuing for nearly three hours on weekends, meaning baristas need to continuously make coffee until around 6 PM. During peak hours, the shop can even reach full capacity (blame our boss! Why only five tables in the shop? Seriously!)

The Mystery of the Small Coffee Shop

Is it the loss of humanity or the decline of morality? Why would Dading's boss only prepare five tables plus a bar counter in the coffee shop? Welcome to today's...

Back to the Topic: Why Do People Choose to Drink Coffee in the Afternoon?

First, let me report that the business hours of the coffee shop where Dading works are from 9:30 AM to 6:30 PM. This means we might not be able to accommodate office workers who rush in for a cup of coffee before work. Some chain brands (with earlier business hours) experience a peak in customer traffic between 7:00 AM and 9:00 AM.

The coffee shop where Dading works is positioned as a self-roasted cafe that offers "freshly roasted quality coffee," with very strict requirements for product quality. Unlike many current young brands, we didn't open our store in bustling commercial areas but chose to locate it in a street with a strong sense of community. (The boss is not short of money!)

With all these prerequisites in mind, let's analyze further:

Coffee Shops as Third Spaces

Third spaces are defined by urban sociologist Ray Oldenburg as informal public gathering places that serve the community. He believes that third spaces have been an indispensable part of human society for centuries. Third spaces can apply to a range of different social spaces, but for many people, the most prominent example is the coffee shop: a friendly, informal gathering place where you can meet with friends or even make new acquaintances. A coffee shop is such a place: it's a bit noisy, but not chaotic; there are many people, yet they maintain their independence; it has the rich atmosphere of modern society. It subtly achieves a balance between private space and public space. Sisters' gathering? Brothers' hangout? Let's go for coffee, a perfect afternoon tea solves it all!

Can't Wake Up Early on Rest Days

Are you telling me I can't sleep in on my day off? The night before my day off, I have to binge-watch a week's worth of videos and catch up on all the gossip, which won't end until the early morning! And you want me to wake up early??? Impossible! I want to lie comfortably until noon~ I'm not the only one who thinks this way, right? Stop laughing, you're the same! Revengeful phone entertainment isn't a good thing, but even if you have a normal sleep schedule, you'll still wake up later on rest days, so don't worry too much~ Work is too exhausting on weekdays, the body wants to relax and get a good sleep! This way, we miss the morning coffee time, have lunch, and go out to relax in the afternoon. Reaching the coffee shop at around 3 PM is perfectly natural!

Coffee Shops Have WiFi and Are Clean and Suitable for Working

Although proper rest is necessary, in this fast-paced era, there are inevitably some "workaholics" who need to work hard even on their days off. "Home" is often too comfortable, so a change of environment is needed. You need suitable tables and chairs for work, quality WiFi, and ideally, the ability to satisfy your craving for food and drinks. A coffee shop! A powerful place that maximizes work productivity. After lunch, bring your computer, find a quiet coffee shop, and activate "corner-overtaking" mode.

3 PM is the Best Time to Drink Coffee

Stephen Miller is currently a postdoctoral researcher at Dartmouth University's Geisel School of Medicine, and he believes that morning coffee is not ideal. Miller studies chronopharmacology, which examines how drugs interact with the natural rhythms of the human body. The general idea is that the human circadian rhythm operates on a rough 24-hour cycle and is regulated by the environment.

For example, sunlight is a very important regulator. When the sun comes out, you feel awake and energetic. On cloudy days, you feel more sluggish and lazy. Sleep schedules, hunger, and many other things are determined by this clock, including your body's hormone production schedule. When you first wake up, your circadian rhythm commands the production of cortisol. Cortisol is often called the "stress steroid" because its levels typically rise when you feel stressed or experience an adrenaline rush. Cortisol keeps you alert, wakes you up, and manipulates many biological processes.

Everyone experiences natural increases in cortisol throughout the day, with most people reaching their peak between 8 and 9 AM each morning. This means that caffeine consumed between 8 and 9 AM is largely wasted because you're already at a natural alertness peak (even if you don't always feel that way).

The period between natural cortisol elevations is when caffeine stimulation will be most productive. This must be after the cortisol peak, which means drinking coffee between 9 AM and around 11:30 AM, or between 1 PM and 5 PM is most effective.

Now everyone understands why coffee shops are so crowded in the afternoon! Next time, if you just want to drink a delicious cup of coffee, avoid peak hours when visiting coffee shops!

Since we started this article by complaining about the boss, let's end by wishing our coffee shop to be busy all day, with daily revenue going up, up, up!