A number of Australian news sources have today reported that Australian cafes will be raising the price of a cup of coffee by around 70c.
James from online coffee bean retailer baybeans.com.au says "Yeah, sure, coffee beans prices have been going up for the last few years, but that doesn't really make much of a difference per cup price, but of course its a good excuse [for cafe's] to raise their prices.
He says "As an indication, 1kg of coffee beans will make 144 shots of coffee, at $3.80 per cup, thats $550 income per KG of coffee. Sure there are other expenses [for cafe's], but some cafes have made savings in other areas, like milk at $1/litre, which FAR outweighs the increase of $3 per KG they pay for coffee beans". James goes on to say "So they used to pay 22/kg, and now they will could be paying $25/kg if they want the same quality - that exercise will earn them an extra $100.80c/kg.
Think about it, someone is having a laugh.
Confession: I must admit, there are a number of quality cafes that will get only 50 cups of coffee from a KG of beans. That could be from wastage and/or updosing, and there are also a fair share that stick by their preferred milk supply, but the reality remains, even with only 50 coffees per KG, and the best quality milk, the bean cost per cup is 44c maximum an increase of 70c is a 250% increase for what is a increase of 20% on the base product.