(FORTUNE Magazine) – A penchant for this more potent coffee is moving beyond such sissified metropolises as Seattle, where even Burger King and McDonald's sell espresso. ; Now it's steaming across the rest of the U.S. from Sarasota, Florida, to a drive-through in Alaska's Aleutian Islands. ''It's another form of upscaling,'' says Margaret Andrews, a consultant with Mercer Management in Lexington, Massachusetts. ''Consumers are buying better pasta and beer. Why not coffee?'' Coffee consumption peaked 30 years ago, when 75% of the population drank more than four cups a day. Today half the populace gulps down about three cups daily. Sales of gourmet coffee, however, have perked from $208 million in 1983 to about $850 million this year, about 20% of the total market. The number of U.S. espresso bars rose from 200 to 500 in the past five years. Among the companies operating such places is Seattle's Starbucks, which runs over 160 cafes, mostly in the Northwest. Gloats senior VP David Olsen: ''The business is growing by leaps and bounds.'' Starbucks, named after the first mate in Moby Dick who knew the difference between a coffee pot and an oil can, has branches in Denver and is opening others in Washington, D.C. But Dutch Harbor, Alaska (pop. 2,500, except when the fishing fleets stop by)? ''We're doing real well,'' says Becky Rasmus, manager of a locally owned Java Express-o pictured at left. ''People come here for serious work, and we give them serious coffee. Our customers go for two or three days without sleeping and need the jolt. I think that espresso is the drug of the 1990s.''