Science is awesome, but on a day-to-day basis it is also often very boring.
According to this infographic by ILoveCoffee.jp, the #1 most coffee-drinking-est career is "Scientist/Lab Technician." I can see the sense in that: science is awesome, but on a day-to-day basis it is also often very boring. How much pipetting can you do before you fall asleep, the drone of the lab hood lulling you off to the Land of Nod? Better get some coffee, then!
And remember, it was mathematician Alfred Renyi who famously said that "A mathematician is a device for turning coffee into theorems."
I am also not surprised about the #2 slot, which goes to "Marketing/PR Professional." If you have ever spent any time around marketing or PR professionals, you know that they are annoyingly frenetic. I'm pretty sure that "I drink a lot of coffee" is just a cover story for all the coke they are snorting in the bathroom. (Totally not kidding about that, by the way.)
Teachers, nurses, writers: three other professions which are known for their coffee consumption. It's the need to stay alert against the vicissitudes of a boring job and/or long hours. I'm sure every Teacher's Lounge in the country has a giant pot of coffee that basically has been continually brewed for the last 30 years. The same goes for most nurse's stations. And as for the lonely writer, well - I just made myself a cup, personally.
"Fighting off boredom" is probably the source of the coffee consumption at job #12, Human Resources Benefits Coordinator. I have been a Human Resources Benefits Coordinator, so I am in the perfect position to tell you: it is an incredibly boring job. Imagine explaining the difference between Short Term and Long Term Care insurance, every day, forever. It makes me bored just thinking about it.
I must take umbrage in the next section, at the assertion that the Northeast is "where the workday coffee ritual is the strongest." This infographic is sourced partly from Dunkin Donuts, which may explain this particular blurb. Dunkin Donuts is strongest in the Northeast, it's true. The doughnut chain has made few inroads into the West Coast culture. But hello? We gave the world Starbucks for pity's sake. I challenge their assertion. I challenge it!
Finally, I am not really sure what to make of the information that writers are most likely to add a flavor to their coffee, while judges are most likely to drink it black. (Personally I almost never add flavor, but I realize that I am but a blip on the statistical map.)