{"id":476890,"date":"2025-12-28T10:27:20","date_gmt":"2025-12-28T10:27:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/476890\/"},"modified":"2025-12-28T10:27:20","modified_gmt":"2025-12-28T10:27:20","slug":"would-you-pay-12-for-a-cup-of-coffee-in-san-diego-san-diego-union-tribune","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/476890\/","title":{"rendered":"Would you pay $12 for a cup of coffee in San Diego? \u2013 San Diego Union-Tribune"},"content":{"rendered":"

Your cortado, cold brew and tulip topped latte<\/a> all cost a lot more than they did a few years ago.<\/p>\n

As $2.25 espresso double shots increased to $4, San Diego coffee and espresso drinkers proved they are willing to pay more.<\/p>\n

But how much more?<\/p>\n

Talitha Coffee Roasters decided to ask its customers. The San Diego company, which sells wholesale roasted beans and has nine cafes under the Talitha and Lofty Coffee brands, last month surveyed more than 200 people with this question: \u201cWhat is the absolute highest amount you would pay for your favorite cup of coffee?\u201d<\/p>\n

Around 56% said they\u2019d be willing to spend $6 to $8 for their favorite drink. Almost 37% said they would spend $3 to $5. Around 4.5% said $9 to $11 is tolerable. All together, 97% were not willing to pay more than $8. At the low and high end, 1.5% were willing to spend at most $3, and around 2% said they were OK to pay $12 or more.<\/p>\n

The survey results showed that Talitha\u2019s menu, which is similar in price to many other San Diego cafes that sell high-end coffee and espresso, hits an economic sweet spot, with most people accepting today\u2019s higher prices, but few willing to pay much more.<\/p>\n

The broad range of price tolerance, from less than $3 to more than $12, offers a window into how consumers view record-high prices \u2014 and how they see coffee itself. Is it a treat or a necessity? Is it a caffeine delivery system or an opportunity to partake in a magical moment: laptop, book or friend at your table, Nina Simone in the background, hum of people typing or chatting all around, and wrapping your hands around a toasty mug?<\/p>\n

The survey results are not surprising given the small sample size and who it asked: Talitha\u2019s own customers, who seek out organic coffee and live in a high cost of living region.<\/p>\n

Greg Peters, the vice president of operations of Talitha Coffee Roasters, said the poll confirmed his expectations.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think our cafe customers, more than anything, value the experience,\u201d he said. \u201cOur house espresso is organic. They\u2019re sustainably \u2026 ethically sourced coffees. We use high quality ingredients and provide a really nice space for people to have a sense of community.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nor were they surprising to Kate Johnson, a financial adviser with Northwestern Mutual in San Diego, whose team works with more than 300 households\u00a0<\/strong>across the U.S.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think what\u2019s unique about coffee is it is a nonnegotiable for a lot of people,\u201d Johnson said.<\/p>\n

As prices have swelled across the board, for beef, eggs and rent, expensive coffee blends in with everything else.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is easier to justify spending two extra dollars,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cWe\u2019ve been feeling the cost of living, the cost of goods, go up since COVID. \u2026 And so, by this point in time \u2014 it\u2019s been five years \u2014 I don\u2019t think people are quite as sensitive as they had been.\u201d<\/p>\n

Johnson also noted that the survey took place around the holidays, when spending goes up, and there\u2019s a mentality that \u201cit\u2019s time to treat ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"EricEric Gollmyer has a latte along with breakfast with his mother, Sharon Gollmyer, at Talitha Coffee Roasters. Coffee prices have risen, causing San Diego cafes to raise their own prices in recent years. (Nelvin C. Cepeda \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)<\/p>\n

Alan Gin, a professor of economics at the University of San Diego, said people\u2019s differing abilities to buy expensive coffee can be explained by what is called a \u201cK-shaped\u201d economy, which illustrates the growing gap between affluent consumers and those who are struggling financially. <\/strong>One arm of the K points up, and one points down.\u00a0<\/p>\n

At the lower end, many consumers are under \u201ca lot of stress right now,\u201d Gin said. Ethically sourced, well-crafted coffee is not a critical need, so \u201cthat\u2019s one of the things consumers are likely to try to cut back on in order to afford the necessities.\u201d<\/p>\n

But, he added, \u201cnot everybody is going to cut back. Prices are rising, people are under stress, but some people are in a little better shape. So people are going to these places, willing to spend that amount. They might be able to weather that, and put up with that, because they\u2019ve fallen in love with the product.\u201d<\/p>\n

Overall, Gin said, he expects higher retail prices \u201cwill have some impact\u201d on cafe sales, as some customers are priced out.<\/p>\n

How cafes deal with rising coffee prices<\/p>\n

For San Diego coffee business owners, deciding how much to charge and when to raise prices is, on one hand, simple math based on their costs.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, it is a delicate balancing act between customer budgets and business bottom lines. Raise prices too much, and sales take a hit. Don\u2019t raise prices enough and you won\u2019t meet your rising costs.<\/p>\n

\u201cPrice increases are not something that we want to do every couple of months, or every three months or even twice a year,\u201d said Peters, with Talitha. \u201cThat just creates distrust with our customers.\u201d Talitha typically adjusts prices once a year, though it recently did a small increase a few weeks ago, he said. He declined to say how much prices have gone up, sharing only that \u201cour prices were increased based directly on our cost of goods\u201d and improved efficiency has allowed the company to absorb some added costs.<\/p>\n

At Bird Rock Coffee Roasters, which has 11 cafes and also roasts for wholesale accounts, the approach to raising prices is slow and thoughtful. Year over year, some retail prices are up around 6 to 7%, depending on the product.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur prices only went up out of necessity,\u201d said Jeff Taylor, the president of Bird Rock Coffee Roasters. Customers have been understanding, he said. The cafes had seen a decline of up to 2% in the number of sales tickets on a given day, but that has rebounded.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur retail sales are up just slightly over last year. Traffic had slowed slightly in November, but the holidays have been good, and traffic is back up,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Not raising prices is not an option, the two San Diego coffee chains said, because their costs have gone up sharply.<\/p>\n

Coffee\u2019s price on the global Arabica coffee commodity market<\/a> reached a record high of more than $4.25 a pound in early 2025. It has since fallen off that peak to around $3.50, but is still more than double what it was before the pandemic and in recent years, as prices have fluctuated.<\/p>\n

\u201cRelatively speaking, that\u2019s still extremely high,\u201d Peters said.<\/p>\n

On top of that commodity price, different coffees extract a \u201cdifferential,\u201d or premium, depending on supply and demand. Other opportunities for markups include transportation and warehousing.<\/p>\n

Peters described the causes of rising prices as \u201ca perfect storm\u201d \u2014 an apt pun, because a primary factor is climate change. Consistent drought<\/a> in Brazil, the world\u2019s largest coffee producer, has led to smaller harvests, even as farmers look to irrigation over rainfall to recover production<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot only are prices going up in Brazil because of lack of supply, but that has a ripple-down effect and affects everybody else,\u201d Peters said.<\/p>\n

Coffee is increasingly in demand in China, where coffee drinkers prize beans from parts of Central and Latin America<\/a>, which raises the prices for those products on the global coffee market.<\/p>\n

Tariffs introduced by President Trump caused prices to rise further. \u201cThat peak of the coffee market did not include tariffs,\u201d Taylor said. \u201cThese tariffs were on top of that high price. Those were 40 or 50 cents as well, to the pound of coffee.\u201d<\/p>\n

Peters, with Talitha, added that the uncertainty has been the hardest aspect of the tariff trade policy.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith the tariffs being implemented and then taken away, and implemented and then taken away, we\u2019ve just had to delay contracts. It just creates a ton of uncertainty,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Coffee is bought and sold in contracts that get fulfilled months or up to one year out. While in some cases tariffs against certain countries have been reduced or removed, purchases made at the earlier, higher prices are still in inventory that needs to be sold.<\/p>\n

Both cafe operators said connected expenses are also up: the energy to roast, the cost of packaging, paper cups, milk, labor and equipment.<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s higher prices for a cup of joe pass the economics professor\u2019s sniff test.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it is legitimate,\u201d Gin said. \u201cThe cost of producing a cup of coffee has risen dramatically, starting with the base of the coffee itself, and then other things like labor cost, the cost of supplies and things like that \u2014 complements to the coffee. So I would buy their argument that they had to raise the prices.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"SanAlan Gin, an economics professor at USD, has a coffee with fellow professor Sara Esfahani in the faculty lounge at the Knauss Center for Business Education at the University of San Diego. (K.C. Alfred \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)<\/p>\n

A further test will come down the line: if commodity coffee prices drop, will retailers adjust their menu prices?<\/p>\n

\u201cThe thing to look for is whether prices will come down rapidly in the future, once the cost of coffee starts declining,\u201d Gin said.<\/p>\n

Necessary treat?<\/p>\n

Some people can spend $8 on 12 ounces of steamed milk and espresso without flinching. For everyone else, shelling out for higher and higher priced coffee comes down to trade-offs.<\/p>\n

One is between coffee and other treats, said Johnson<\/a>. Normally, when prices go up, demand drops. But coffee is an attainable splurge. So it might veer from that norm.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt sits in an interesting price point, right?\u201d Spending $8 on a fancy coffee is \u201ca lot easier of a splurge to justify than a fancy dinner.\u201d<\/p>\n

And when bigger luxuries are the first to go \u2014 vacation, new car, dinner out \u2014 holding on to a smaller splurge is a way to keep indulging.<\/p>\n

Another trade-off could be between coffee and caffeine. For people who see caffeine as fuel, shifting to something cheaper like an energy drink is fine. But for those who can taste the difference between an appropriately roasted and pulled single origin shot and a stale blend, gas station coffee is a tough sell.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce you start drinking high-quality beer \u2014 it\u2019s the same thing with coffee. It\u2019s really hard to go back,\u201d said Peters, who worked in the craft beer industry before turning to coffee. \u201cI mean, years ago, I used to drink crappy coffee, and then I started drinking better coffee, and then I started working in the coffee industry. And now, it\u2019s tough. Like, if I get a bad cup of coffee.\u201d His voice trailed off, as if the thought were too painful to finish aloud.<\/p>\n

Johnson\u00a0has found that for some of her clients, quality coffee is essential.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, I can\u2019t speak for every single person, but I think if you\u2019re a connoisseur of coffee, it\u2019s probably not something you want to compromise on. But you may be willing to compromise somewhere else to fill in the gap,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

She put herself in that category, saying, \u201cI love a phenomenal cappuccino, and I\u2019m willing to pay a little extra to get one.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your cortado, cold brew and tulip topped latte all cost a lot more than they did a few…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":476891,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5134],"tags":[5229,64,1582,276,79,1370,3549,7264,7289,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-476890","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-ca","11":"tag-california","12":"tag-economy","13":"tag-latest-headlines","14":"tag-san-diego","15":"tag-sandiego","16":"tag-top-stories-sdut","17":"tag-united-states","18":"tag-united-states-of-america","19":"tag-unitedstates","20":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","21":"tag-us","22":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115796721820023385","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/476890","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=476890"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/476890\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/476891"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=476890"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=476890"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=476890"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}