Young coffee drinkers in Slovenia said they approve of sustainable coffee and then buy whatever is quickest, according to a study by Polona Dakič of the Faculty of Management at the University of Primorska in Koper, published in the journal Frontiers in Sustainability on 27 July 2026 and reported by Daily Coffee News on 28 September 2026. Dakič calls the gap between the two the sustainability-convenience paradox, and it is the title of the paper.
What did the study actually do?
Dakič ran three semi-structured focus groups in Slovenia in March 2026, each lasting 60 to 90 minutes, with 23 participants aged 18 to 27, as the paper states in Frontiers in Sustainability, published 27 July 2026. The groups were split by how much coffee the participants drank: eight heavy users, seven casual users and eight non-drinkers. The transcripts were analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis.
That is a qualitative design rather than a survey, and the paper says so in its own limitations section, quoted below.
What did the participants say?
Two quotations carried in the Daily Coffee News report of 28 September 2026 sit at the center of the finding. One participant said: "I care about sustainability in theory, but honestly, when I'm stressed or late for class, I just buy whatever is fastest." Another said: "I like the idea of ethical coffee, but most of the time convenience decides for me because that's what fits my daily routine."
Dakič's reading of the transcripts, as published on 27 July 2026, is that sustainability worked as a symbolic aspiration rather than a behavioral commitment. Purchases, the paper reports, were shaped instead by "convenience-oriented routines, emotional comfort, affordability, sensory gratification, and socially embedded consumption practices."
What are the study's details, with their sources?
- 23 participants, aged 18 to 27: as reported by Dakič in Frontiers in Sustainability, 27 July 2026
- Three focus groups: 8 heavy users, 7 casual users, 8 non-drinkers: as reported by Dakič, 27 July 2026
- 60 to 90 minutes per group, fieldwork conducted in March 2026: as reported by Dakič, 27 July 2026
- Five named themes, from consumption profiles to symbolic consumption: as reported by Dakič, 27 July 2026
- No financial support received for the work or its publication: as stated by Dakič, 27 July 2026
How far do the findings carry?
Not as far as a headline about a generation suggests, and the paper is direct about it. Its limitations section, as published on 27 July 2026, states: "The qualitative focus group design prioritized interpretive depth rather than statistical generalizability. Additionally, the study focused specifically on Generation Z consumers in Slovenia, meaning that sustainability perceptions and consumption practices may differ across cultural, economic, and geographical contexts."
Daily Coffee News made the same point in its 28 September 2026 report, noting that Dakič acknowledged the work was "based on a relatively small qualitative sample in Slovenia and was not designed to be statistically generalizable." Twenty-three people in one country is a set of accounts, not a measurement of a market.
What does it add to what is already known?
The stated-preference gap it describes is not new ground in consumer research, and Dakič's contribution is the coffee-specific detail: which routines, which moments and which framings displaced the stated preference. The five themes the paper names are coffee consumption profiles among Generation Z consumers, brand familiarity and packaging in purchasing decisions, sustainability perceptions and ethical awareness, the sustainability-convenience paradox itself, and symbolic consumption.
The paper is open access and published in full, which means the transcripts' themes and the limitations can be read alongside the finding rather than after it. For related reading, see our explainers on what coffee tasting notes mean and how instant coffee is made, or browse Taste & Culture.
