Why is specialty coffee so expensive?

Brad Timmins – Sat down with one of the co-founders of The Basket Is Full, Inc., and asked why is specialty coffee so expensive? Jonathan Primo Fuego Galicia shared with Mr. Timmins that the coffee industry is as complex as the wine industry. We are currently in the third wave coffee movement era. Third-wave coffee means: Your local roasters know their beans. We know the country, soil health and farm conditions of the beans, we’ve been to the farm and take incredible steps to focus our attention on unlocking each note seed favor.  Also keep in mind, that each barista now competes for top price of extracting strongest note flavors and after taste. During the first two eras of coffee the industry was not functioning like the wine industry was.
 
Coffee is unique and with 1.5 billions of cups served each day to consumers, not everyone is interested in commercially grown low grade burnt coffee anymore. The quality of coffee matters to us and we only sell “Premium Coffee for the Sophisticated Taste Buds.”  The level of attention to detail gets pricey. Think you’re used to $5 cups? How about $10 or $15 for a cup of coffee picked and brewed with the care that goes into making a fine wine.
 
So the next time you see a sign indicating a price north of $5 for a cup of coffee, remember this breakdown:
        

1. The 100 trees cultivated by an Ethiopian coffee farmer (birthplace of coffee)
2. Annual coffee bean yield from 100 trees is 50 lbs. of coffee
3. Number of cups of coffee brewed from a 50 lb. bag is 1,151
4. Number of cups of an average coffee drinker consumes each year is 1,131

 
Meaning, if you drink “Premium” coffee from a micro roaster that pays top price to import the best Ethiopian coffee, you can justifiably tell your friends that you have a personal Ethiopian coffee farmer who cares that you drinking the best source of coffee Ethiopia produces. 

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