The characters of Friends were often shown enjoying a cup of coffee, but someone actually calculated how much of the beverage was consumed during the series. The NBC sitcom, created by David Crane and Marta Kauffman debuted in 1994 before growing into a pop culture phenomenon. In total, the 10-season series consisted of 236 episodes, which gave core characters — Monica, Rachel, Ross, Chandler, Phoebe, and Joey — ample opportunity to grab a cup of joe.
Throughout Friends, the six main characters frequently spent time at a local coffeehouse called Central Perk. The small establishment was close in proximity to Monica's apartment, as well as Chandler and Joey's residence, which resided in New York City's Greenwich Village. As a primary hangout, much of the series' plots took place in or around Central Perk. Not only did Gunther work there, but Rachel and Joey both spent time on the waiting staff. Phoebe also provided entertainment in the form of her original songs like "Smelly Cat."
Based on the recurring importance of coffee to the lives of the Friends characters, a blogger named Kit Lovelace calculated just how much each person drank throughout the series. Lovelace shared his findings (via Twitter) in the form of organized charts. In total, the characters drank 1,154 cups of coffee during the 10 seasons of the sitcom, which came down to about 115 coffees featured in each installment. Lovelace, however, took it a step further in terms of investigating the Friends coffee consumption.
Breaking Down Each Friends Character's Coffee Consumption
While using a chart, it was determined that Phoebe was the one who drank the most coffee despite the viewers' assumption that Chandler was the caffeine addict. In 236 episodes, Phoebe consumed 227 cups of coffee, which was nearly one cup per episode. Next to her was Chandler at 212 followed by Monica's 198, Joey's 191, and Ross' 188. At the bottom of the list was Rachel, who only drank 138 cups even though she worked there the longest.
As for the money spent on the coffee, Lovelace assumed that each cup cost around $1.50 in addition to a 20% tip. In total, he calculated that the group spent just over $2,000 on their coffee beverages. Phoebe was the Friends character required to obviously pay the highest sum of $356.40 whereas Rachel came in at $248.40. Some would argue that the group shelled out even more since $1.50 for an NYC coffee was low even in the '90s.
Another interesting aspect of the Friends coffee consumption findings was the change in their habits over time. Rachel started to drink a lot more coffee after she quit her job at Central Perk. While most of the other characters fluctuated in their coffee habits, the group as a whole started to gradually decline their consumption. In fact, some of the lowest totals came in Friends season 10, proving that the characters were busy with other aspects in life to worry about going to Central Perk for some coffee.