The End of Cheap Coffee ⇥

Just two quotes are necessary to explain why a cup of coffee simply should not be available for a couple of dollars:

“It’s interesting to me that the same consumer that will go to 7-11 and buy a bottle of Fiji Water for five dollars will go crazy and complain about a cup of coffee,” says Geoff Watts, Intelligentsia’s vice president and green (unroasted, that is) coffee buyer.

“Coffee as cheap fuel for the masses is a historical anomaly,” says Peter Giuliano, director of coffee at the North Carolina-based roaster Counter Culture. “There’s no nutritive value. It’s drunk just for the pleasure of it. It’s a total miracle of global agriculture, a feat that spans cultures and countries.”

The advancements that the industrial age brought allowed for lower prices for goods across the board. As a result of increased demand for these same items, prices are increasing back to their traditional amounts. As more is known about how to harvest and how to roast coffee beans today than it was a few hundred years ago, you’re actually getting a better quality product at a similar price to what would be expected by inflation.