After water, coffee is the world’s most popular beverage with more than 400 billion cups consumed annually, or so Ubercool tells me. A decade ago, global coffee retail sales amounted to US$30 billion. Today, sales top US$70 billion. With all that in mind, Coca-Cola, MaccieDs and Starbucks are going head-to-head, or cup-to-cup in an all out attack on coffee consisseurs tastebuds…

The US$8.3 billion business of beans and ready-to-drink caffeine drinks is expected to top US$19 billion in the next five years, reports Mintel. That has attracted the likes of Coca-Cola, which filed five U.S. patents in 2005 for coffee and tea “pod” designs, single-serving brewing machines and a steamed milk system. In late 2005, the company filed nine trademarks for “Far Coast” coffee, coffee grinders, fruit tea and other products.

Coca-Cola plans to launch Coca-Cola Blak, a coffee-flavored cola that will compete with Starbucks’ Frappuccino and DoubleShot. Meanwhile, Starbucks and Dunkin’ Donuts are set to battle McDonald’s, which is rolling out a premium roast 100% Arabica coffee in its 13,700 U.S. locations.

So long as we see more free WiFi, I don’t care..