Americans are waking up to a bitter reality: their daily cup of coffee costs more than ever. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, a coffee price crisis is hitting wallets hard, with prices up 20.9% from last year and 3.6% in just one month—the steepest increase since 2011.
Roasted coffee prices surged 21.7% year-over-year, while instant coffee climbed 20.1%. With less than 1% of coffee produced in the United States, Americans rely almost entirely on imports—leaving consumers vulnerable to both global weather events and Washington’s economic policies.
Brazil and Vietnam, which account for half of the world’s coffee supply, have been battered by drought and bad weather. At the same time, tariffs imposed earlier this year are making a bad situation worse. In April, the White House slapped a 10% tariff on imports, followed by a staggering 50% tariff on Brazilian coffee in July.
Scott Lincicome of the Cato Institute explained, “That’s inevitable when you raise taxes on a product that simply can’t be made in the United States and for which there is what we call inelastic demand.” In other words, coffee lovers can’t cut back—even as prices spike.
For hardworking Americans, this is yet another reminder of how economic mismanagement turns life’s small comforts into luxuries.
