What makes coffee so expensive?
How much does your usual coffee cup cost? At home/grocery coffee is more affordable than a cup of coffee at Starbucks and especially when compared to the most expensive coffees. What makes coffee so expensive?
Luxury coffee specialty is in the production process. Coffee produced through animal defecation is popular trend in the luxury coffee realm. Black Ivory coffee is the current leader for expensive coffee. It is made in Thailand by elephants with Arabia beans that are processed during digestion. It is said that the elephant stomach acid breaks down the protein in the coffee bean. A cup of coffee costs about $50 and a pound will cost more than $500.
Kopi Luwak is also one of the most expensive coffees in the world. Like the Black Ivory, it is made in Indonesia through a process where a palm civet eats the ripest coffee cherries and 'poops' out the coffee seeds. Kopi Luwak, also known as civet coffee, is $160/pound. Compared to the average Starbucks drink, these luxury coffees are at least five times as expensive starting at $35 a cup.
Coffee from local cafes are still a pricy option. There have also been several extravagant Starbucks drinks. When searching for expensive coffee at Starbucks, you will find several drinks that have been concocted with more than enough shots of espresso to restart a heart. With 170 espresso shots added to the 3 standard ristretto shots, this venti flat white costs $148.99 Another example of a costly drink included 54 pumps of Frappuccino roast coffee, 70 pumps of white mocha, 4 pumps of caramel syrup, 5 bananas, and 70 grams of protein powder. (moneyinc.com)
Starbucks carries a luxury coffee machine separate from its usual espresso machine, the Clover machine. The Clover machine is a cross between a French press and vacuum pot, a Vacuum-Press. (Davies) In the French press process, ground coffee is fully immersed in hot water, steeps, and then the grounds get separated out by pushing through a fine mesh. In the vacuum pot, water gets heated in the bottom of a glass globe and then forced into another globe on top, where it mixes with ground coffee. Once it is taken off the heat, the coffee goes back to the bottom globe. Its price is higher than the regular items on the menu starting at $4. The price is dependent on the type of coffee, origin and roast that the consumer chooses.
Grocery store coffees are the most affordable coffees. The most affordable coffee brands at the grocery store are Folgers and Maxwell House. Folgers coffee is one of the most known grocery coffee brands The cost for about a pound of Folger's House blend is $6.20. The optimal taste depends on water to coffee ratio, water temp, and type of roast.
Maxwell house is another well known grocery coffee. A pound of Maxwell House cost about $5.83. It came in at #2 on The Huffington Post's rank of dark roasts. Mass produced grocery brands produce low quality coffee beans. The mass producers of coffee have used low quality beans in order to keep the price low when producing as well as selling their coffee in grocery stores.
Compared to one of the most expensive coffee's in the world, it seems that the usual order at Starbucks may be worth the price. However, compared to Starbucks prices, at home coffee drinks is the best bang for your buck when wanting to keep your coffee budget at a minimum.
You can get coffee at any price, but the taste may or may not be the same. It all depends on the taste that you're searching for. Not many can afford the $35+ price tag of luxury coffee yet many budget their coffee spending by drinking grocery coffee over the ever popular, Starbucks. Coffee can be expensive sometimes and there's a huge reason for that. When looking for something exclusive, luxury coffee and its hefty price may be for you. Many will stick to their usual routine of stopping by their local Starbucks and the rest know that " the best part of waking up, is Folgers in your cup."
Sources Cited
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·"Kopi Luwak Is the Most Expensive Coffee in the World!" The Most Expensive Coffee in the World - All Details about Kopi Luwak
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·Davies, Chris. "Forget Lattes: Starbucks' next Coffee Trend Might Finally Be the Clover.", SlashGear
·Grillo, Thomas. "Starbucks Raises Prices on a Premium Brew." Bizjournals.com, Boston Business Journal