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?