MYFOXNY.COM – How much are you willing to pay for a cup of joe? A gourmet coffee chain is betting you’ll pay up to $12 for a fine brew.
Cafe Grumpy has Brooklyn locations in Greenpoint and Park Slope. It also has a Manhattan location in Chelsea. It is part of a small, but growing, movement of coffee shops roasting their own beans. The company defends the steep prices, saying they are higher end coffees and take much longer to develop and process.
The cafes offer a changing selection of coffees. One current offering is called Nekisse. It is described as a “very clean, sweet, complex cup with tropical fruit notes of pineapple, kiwi and key lime.” Cafe Grumpy also offers specialty teas.
Huh, maybe your paying for the ambiance.
I am not paying that much for coffee. I will switch to tap water first.
I roast my own coffee beans to make my daily espresso or two. Now, my taste buds are a bit crude and don’t do with subtlety. I’ve ordered roasted ground and brewed about 15 different select coffee beans from around the world.
Can’t really tell the difference.
Biggest difference—how dark the roast. I guess burning the crap out of anything is a powerful variable.
After the roast, seems to me the grind is the next variable, then the tamp.
Nothing special going on here except the BS.
Things are going to continue to get more expensive as long as idiots are willing to pay the price.
Bah! Humbug! Even Stankywiz, I mean Starbucks coffee is nasty at $4.
I do not understand the fascination with burned, mud like coffee. Hint: if it needs sugar or milk (or a milk like product) to be edible, it isn’t good coffee!
McDonald’s has better coffee than most of these places. And, it’s cheap. It is one of the few things I will actually buy there these days. Oh, as long as you stick to the regular coffee and avoid the frozen, sugar and milk contaminated stuff they also sell these days.
I don’t want all that zhit. I just want a good cup of American Joe! (Hush Dallas!)
I’d probobly be willing to do it once, and then most likely not again after. Otherwise I better be getting a happy ending wth that cup.
Everything is worth what the consumer is willing to pay. If this coffee house can sell their product for $12 a cup, then I guess to someone it was worth it.
Good luck to them, though I think its an idea that will fail.
We have a place here in Laramie WY that roasts their own coffee and then sells it for about $2 a cup. Is it any better than the other places? Yeah, a little. Maybe. If you concentrate really hard. $12? Yeah, I think you’re paying for the ambiance. And the experience of feeling superior as you sip your $12 coffee and read this post on your new shiny iPad.
#4–spsffan==false epicureanism. I get that crap all the time at same blog.
Lets put it simply: taste is taste. An individual thing.
I could say you don’t like coffee, you have to dilute the beans with water.
Holding one taste above another taste is BS.
YOU (and I) can have our preferences, but that is all it is.
Ok..
1 lb of coffee beans can make 100 cups of Coffee.
Even if you Make it RICH 50 cups. 8oz cups.
I can get Raw beans Direct from Ethiopia, at $0.50 per pound.
NOW,
After you add FLAVORINGS/MILK/and all the rest. How much are you paying for the coffee, and how much for the MILK..
Roast and flavor your beans, so we double the price. Even if the cost was $50 per POUND..
A $4 cup of coffee would PAY for itself and Make a good profit.
I really DOUBT that these companies are Purchasing BEANS with OUT getting the best prices.
“Huh, maybe your paying for the ambiance.”
Objection to the “your.”
And “ambiance” don’t quite look right.
I wonder if they’ll be selling Kopi Luwak coffee (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kopi_Luwak), made from coffee beans harvested from the shit of a small mammal.
I would pay ten bucks for a cup occasionally. (keep in mind that $10 in Manhattan is probably like $5-$7 where I’m at.)
I mean, I drink Johnny Black most of the time, but a few times a year I pay $30 for a glass of Johnny Blue. Same thing with wines and beers.
Coffee is no different, and just because most people drink dollar coffee (I do too) doesn’t mean there isn’t something tastier, rarer, and pricier.
welcome to the Napa Valley folks
We have had $12 cups of coffee for a while, last time I was at the place I think I saw (what they consider) a super special cup for $20.
Supply must be driving the prices on this coffee, as large coffee plantations expand, the smaller more sustainable and flavor focused small family farms have to raise prices to stay in business. The beans from these small producers with unique flavor and traditional manufacturing methods are probably pretty rare, not the $0.50 per pound stuff that was mass produced.
I think $12 for something natural, beautiful and professionally made, is a small price to pay for perfection.
A fool and his money are soon parted.
Thank you internet for all the free advertising.
*shrug* to each their own. I might try some if I was in the area for some reason and happened to be there, but wouldn’t make a special trip for it.
I like the darker roasts if they’re properly done, they add deeper notes and more body. However, I don’t go to coffee houses that are full of themselves. I also don’t buy severely overpriced coffee drinks.
For most places, their underlying costs for a cup of coffee shouldn’t be more than 25c if they are managing things correctly. For the expresso/mixy drinks, closer to 75c.
As long as you accept that the coffee house gets a profit in that range, who cares?
All restaurant operations are paid for convenience — you not having to get your lazy ass up and make x, y and z. If they are good at it, they deserve the money, if not, you never go back.
Pretty simple concept.
I’d buy one cup to see what the fuss is about and then report my findings on Yelp.
The ambiance has to be exceptional and for the money, some hot stud better be sitting on my lap.
Seems like typical NYC. My local coffee joint roasts their own beans daily and they only charge $1 for a massively large cup of fresh roasted and brewed coffee.
Re ECA, “I can get Raw beans Direct from Ethiopia, at $0.50 per pound.”
How much for delivery?
I measured it. 7 tablespoons per 2 cups of cappuccino. 255 tbs in a bag of coffee that costs $18. 7 into 255 is 36 time 2 is 72 cups. 72 goes into 18 bucks at .25 cents.
Makes it worthwhile.
http://freshcoffeebeans.com/
About 6 dollars a pound but you lose 30% by weight by roasting–so its not cheap. But fun to do at least once.
I get 6 pounds at a time to get the break on shipping.
Java Joe’s in Albuquerque sells really good coffee, at $2.50 for a good sized brewed cup with free refills. There’s none of that “venti” snobbery, and the coffee doesn’t taste burned either (yes they roast their own beans). Plus, it’s only about 3 blocks from where I live. They do the espresso thing too if you like that, but I’ve always liked their regular brewed coffee.
Skeptic..
I hope you arnt a pencil..
But that cost would change depending on the Amount and How fast you want it..
USPS, could probably do it in UNDER 6lb packets around $7-15
At $12 per cup, I hope they have a great WiFi connection, at least one refill and maybe a backroom where the barista will blow you once for every 12 cups purchased.
I’m not a real fan of Starbucks (they are so proud of their roasting but they usually taste scorched to me) but I think they’ve pretty much hit the top price for what most consumers will pay. Isn’t that why they’ve expanded into food? New profit stream?
$12 coffee? If they’re opening on Wall Street and the barista is particularly attractive and skilled in the back room, they might be successful. On the other hand, people said Starbucks was overpriced and would fail at $4.
There’s no accounting for some people’s taste in this wonderful beverage. Here in Thailand, you can get a cup of Thai-style coffee on the street for under a US dollar. Made with sweet condensed milk. Not to my taste. But there are lots of coffee shops up to and including Starbucks.
Actually, I’m in Laos right now and the French have left a lovely coffee tradition behind. Almost any restaurant will serve you a pretty great, thick, dark cup of juice from locally sourced beans. Particularly good with your morning baguette (dunking is perfectly acceptable). That and a couple of eggs will set you back a couple of dollars with one, maybe two refills. Best of all, due to government currency restrictions – NO Starbucks!
Somehow I can’t help but look down on anyone willing to pay $12 for a cup of coffee. It is really difficult to have anything but disdain for such a fool.
All that stuff will give you “ball cancer”. Don’t say I didn’t warn ya.
#27 Kittyburger: Nonsense, my dear. All things in moderation. Coffee has been shown to cut the risk of diabetes by up to 50% depending on the amount consumed. Drinking a couple of cups per day has been shown to reduce the risk of colon cancer by around 25%. And if Parkinson’s disease runs in your family, three or four cups a day can cut your risk by up to 70-80%!!!
Got a migraine? Drop a couple of aspirin and wash them down with a strong cup of coffee. Voila! Headache meds often contain aspirin, acetaminophen and caffeine. Next time you feel a little asthma attack coming on, take your meds and sit back with a nice hot cup of java.
In fact, for most people (i.e. those without other medical problems) coffee is shown to be healthful and a nice safe stimulant.
There is an association between testicular cancer and coffee but it is pretty tenuous. Sometimes, coffee can be contaminated with a toxin called ochratoxin which has been associated with liver and kidney tumors and, very rarely, testicular hyperplasia and lowered sperm counts. Interestingly, ochratoxin is more likely to be found in your morning bacon than in your coffee. Personally, I think I’ll drink more coffee instead of eat more bacon. Oh, hell. I’ll have both, please!
By the way, Kittburger: How many kitties does it take to make a decent burger? Make mine a bacon cheese kittyburger and a cup of coffee. No fries: those things will kill you.
I consider myself to be a coffee afficionado. I know that Arabica beans make delicious coffee and Robusta beans make the crappy coffee found in cafeterias. Being a purist and eschewing additives I prefer to drink mine black. Having consumed coffee from every major retailer, I have never tasted any coffee which has “tropical fruit notes of pineapple, kiwi and key lime.”
>> Benjamin said, on May 4th, 2010 at 10:47 am
>> I am not paying that much for coffee. I will switch to tap water first.
Here in Portland, our tap water is FANTASTIC. We also have Benson Bubblers which dispense free, ever running delicious water.
Yet, you see people walking around with over-priced plastic bottles of water probably filled with inferior tap water elsewhere.
These same people might go for a $12 cup of coffee!