Why Does Specialty Coffee Cost More?

Spotted: you, in the grocery aisle, wondering why our bag costs twice as much. A fair question, darling. Here’s the honest answer.

Short answer: Specialty coffee costs more because more of the work is done by hand, in smaller amounts, by people who are named and paid for quality. A grocery-store bag is priced to be cheap and consistent. A specialty bag is priced to taste like where it came from.

• The farm: One named producer or community, not an anonymous blend
• The plant: Varieties chosen for flavour, which often give less fruit
• The processing: Days or weeks of careful fermenting and drying
• The roast: Roasted in small batches every week, not months ago

You’re paying for a specific coffee

Most supermarket coffee is bought as a commodity: large lots, mixed together, priced by a global market. Specialty coffee is bought by the lot. We know who grew it, at what altitude, which variety and how it was processed. If we don’t know, we don’t sell it.

Some plants just produce less

The varieties that taste the most interesting are often the hardest to grow. Sudan Rume and Gesha give far less fruit than the high-yield plants used for commodity coffee, so every kilo costs the farmer more.

Processing takes time

A co-fermented coffee like Piña Colada spends days in a tank and weeks drying. If a batch goes wrong, the farm loses it. That risk is in the price. Read more about how processing works.

Freshness costs money too

We roast every week and ship what we just roasted. Coffee that sits in a warehouse and on a shelf for months is cheaper to sell, and it tastes like it.

We show you what we paid

On our product pages we publish the price we paid for the green coffee. See Pelaez Catiope for an example. If a roaster can’t tell you where the money went, ask why.

Quick answers

Is expensive coffee always better?

No. Price tells you about rarity and labour, not whether you will like it. The Mad House is one of our lowest-priced coffees and one of our most ordered.

Where should I start if I’m used to grocery coffee?

Start with The Mad House: chocolate, caramel and nuts, with nothing strange about it.

Does “small batch” on a label mean anything?

Not by itself. Look for the farm, the variety, the process and a roast date. Those are harder to fake than a slogan.

How do I make a bag last?

Buy what you’ll drink in three to four weeks, keep it sealed and away from heat, and grind just before brewing.

Read next: What Does “100% Arabica” Actually Mean? · Why We Roast Truer, Not Lighter or Darker · Coffee Without Gatekeeping: No Vocabulary Test Required

You know you love it.
xoxo, The Angry Roaster