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

For many young people today, coffee is the real alarm clock. Annoying phone ringtones are only 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. But as someone who lives in a coffee shop, I have found that coffee shops actually have two peaks, one around 11 AM and one around 3 PM. The 3 PM peak lasts longer, sometimes running for nearly three hours on weekends, which means baristas keep making coffee until around 6 PM. During peak hours the shop can even fill to capacity (blame the boss, who gave us only five tables).

The Mystery of the Small Coffee Shop

Is it the loss of humanity or the decline of morality? Why would Dading's boss prepare only 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, a note: the coffee shop where Dading works opens from 9:30 AM to 6:30 PM. That means we may not catch office workers who rush in for a cup before work. Some chain brands, which open earlier, see their peak between 7:00 AM and 9:00 AM.

The shop where Dading works is positioned as a self-roasting cafe that offers freshly roasted quality coffee, with very strict requirements for product quality. Unlike many young brands today, we did not open in a bustling commercial area but chose a street with a strong sense of community. (The boss is not short of money.)

With all these prerequisites in mind, let us analyze further.

Coffee Shops as Third Spaces

Urban sociologist Ray Oldenburg defines third spaces as informal public gathering places that serve the community. He believes third spaces have been an indispensable part of human society for centuries. The term can apply to many kinds of social space, but for many people the most prominent example is the coffee shop: a friendly, informal gathering place where you can meet friends or even make new acquaintances. A coffee shop is such a place: a little noisy but not chaotic, full of people who nonetheless keep their independence, carrying the rich atmosphere of modern society. It subtly strikes a balance between private and public space. A gathering of sisters? A hangout for friends? Go for coffee; a perfect afternoon tea solves it all.

Can't Wake Up Early on Rest Days

Are you telling me I cannot sleep in on my day off? The night before a day off, I have to binge a week's worth of videos and catch up on all the gossip, which does not end until the early hours. And you want me to wake up early? Impossible. I want to lie comfortably until noon. I am not the only one who thinks this way, right? Stop laughing, you are the same. Revenge phone entertainment is not a good thing, but even with a normal sleep schedule you will still wake up later on rest days, so do not worry too much. Weekdays are exhausting and the body wants to relax and sleep well. So we miss the morning coffee window, have lunch, then head out to unwind 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

Proper rest is necessary, but in this fast-paced era there are inevitably some workaholics who need to push on even on their days off. "Home" is often too comfortable, so a change of environment is needed. You want suitable tables and chairs for work, quality WiFi and, ideally, food and drink to satisfy your cravings. A coffee shop is a powerful place that maximizes work productivity. After lunch, bring your computer, find a quiet coffee shop and switch on "overtaking on the corner" 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 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 runs on a rough 24-hour cycle and is regulated by the environment.

Sunlight, for example, 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 much else 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 through the day, with most people reaching their peak between 8 and 9 AM each morning. This means caffeine consumed between 8 and 9 AM is largely wasted, because you are already at a natural alertness peak (even if you do not always feel that way).

The periods between natural cortisol elevations are 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 a delicious cup of coffee, avoid peak hours when visiting a coffee shop.

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

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

For an afternoon cup, a medium roast is the easiest choice: it sits between the brighter acidity of a light roast and the heavier bitterness of a dark roast, giving the balance most drinkers want. FrontStreet Coffee's Brazil Queen Farm is a good everyday option, a rare Yellow Bourbon from Mogiana at a medium roast with cream, peanut, chocolate, toast and sugarcane notes and a rounded cup that works as pour-over, moka pot or espresso.

If you like a sweeter, fruitier medium roast, FrontStreet's Strawberry Candy combines honey-processed coffee from Costa Rica with washed Geisha from Panama and roasts it medium, so it shows both orange-blossom honey and a rounded sweetness; it suits cold brew, pour-over and espresso. FrontStreet's 2013 Natural Typica, a Yunnan small-bean coffee, is roasted medium to keep its balanced, gentle character, with nut, brown sugar, black tea and dried apricot notes, and works for pour-over, cold brew and a drip machine.

For a classic, FrontStreet's Jamaica Blue Mountain No.1 is a Typica roasted medium so that its acidity, bitterness, sweetness and body blend into one elegant whole, with chocolate, roasted nuts, cream and caramel on the palate.