There’s nothing more wholesomely all-American than milk. You put it on your cereal, you put it in your coffee, you even cook with it. According to data from the Beverage Marketing Corporation, the average American consumed a whopping 20.4 gallons of cow juice last year. That’s more than distilled spirits, wine, energy drinks, tea and sports beverages combined. It’s more than coffee and more than fruit juice.

But it’s not more than beer. Last year, the average America consumed 20.8 gallons of beer. Being an above average American, I’m sure I at least doubled that. 🙂

While it’s impressive that beer bested milk (must be all those breakfast stouts!) the numbers are actually in decline. In 2005, Americans consumed 21.4 gallons of beer, so beer consumption has dropped a full gallon in the past five years, even as wine and distilled spirits nudged slightly upwards. Carbonated soda drinks took the biggest hit, down well over 10% from five years ago. It looks like people are skipping the sodapop and are instead choosing water (up almost 3 gallons since 2005) and Energy drinks (up 0.7 gallons, a gain of over 100%).

I snagged this pretty chart from the folks over at Ad Age where you can find beverage industry experts prattling on about the nuances of the American beverage industry if that’s your thing.

Knowing that Dragon’s Milk beat cow’s milk is enough for me!

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