Perhaps because it’s older? Coffee culture took off post WW2 in Australia with an influx in Italians but it didn’t start to catch on in the US until the 90s.

Coffee culture has existed in the US since the 1700s at least when Americans started drinking coffee instead of tea to spite the British, it's just a different coffee culture than the modern cafe espresso culture and it's not "better" or "worse".

Wasn't Starbucks founded in the early 70s? It's an extension of the already existing Seattle coffee scene at the time.

I think Australia has a fondness for espresso but not coffee. FFS the default drink in a McDonald's breakfast isn't even coffee but hot chocolate. What kind of coffee culture does that?

Keep shifting those goal posts, but you’re still off by 20 years from when it was taking hold in Australia

The US has had Italians for just as long, and unlike Australia didn't let the mafia corner the produce industry.