New York — For years, a daily McDonald’s commute was a cup of coffee with 10 sugars and five creamers. Later, it was a Starbucks caramel macchiato with almond milk and two pumps of syrup.
Coffee has been a morning ritual for Chandra Donelson since she was old enough to drink it. But after being dismayed by the rising prices, the 35-year-old from Washington, D.C., decided to do the unthinkable: she gave up.
“I did it every day for years. I loved it. It was just my routine,” she says. “And now it’s not.”
Years of steadily rising coffee prices have led some coffee lovers in this country to change their habits by canceling visits to coffee shops, switching to cheaper drinks or abandoning them altogether.
Coffee prices in the United States rose 18.3% in January from a year ago, according to the latest news Consumer Price Index released on Friday. The government stated that coffee prices rose by 47% over five years.
This extraordinary rise has prompted some to take extraordinary measures.
“Before, I thought it was impossible to get through my day without coffee,” says Liz Sweeney, 50, of Boise, Idaho, a former “coffee addict” who has cut back on her consumption. “Now my car is not on autopilot.”
Sweeney used to have three cups of coffee at home every day and would stop by the café whenever she left the house. As prices rose last year, she stopped visiting cafes and reduced her intake to a cup a day at home. To compensate for the caffeine, you open a can of Diet Coca-Cola at home or wander into McDonald’s for one.
Dan DeBon, 34, of Minnetonka, Minnesota, has also cut back on his visits to coffee shops, aware of the rising cost as he and his wife save to buy a house.
“What used to be $2 coffee is now $5 or $6,” says DeBaun, who now buys ground coffee at Trader Joe’s and fills a travel mug to bring to the office.
Data from Toast, a payment platform used by more than 150,000 restaurants, found that the average price of regular hot coffee in the United States rose to $3.61 in December, with wide variation by location. The average price of a cold drink was $5.55.
Almost all coffee consumed in the United States is imported. Although tariffs will affect some coffee imports in 2025, they… It was eventually removed. Climate issues – drought in Vietnam, heavy rains in Indonesia, hot and dry weather in Brazil – It is blamed for reducing coffee yields Crops and global prices rise.
Two-thirds of Americans drink coffee daily, according to the National Coffee Association. For many, this is an indispensable part of their routine, and rising prices have led to nothing more than grumbling.
The Coffee Association says its surveys show that coffee consumption is broadly stable despite rising prices. But, because of the cost of everything from rent to beef, others began to change their habits.
Sharon Cooksey, 55, of Greensboro, North Carolina, used to visit her local Starbucks most weekday mornings for a caramel drink until she gave up last year. First, I turned to brewing Starbucks at home. Then, I discovered that Lavazza coffee was about 40% cheaper and switched to using it.
“Can I buy a bag of coffee for $6?” She said to herself. “It was like I had just discovered another world. The multiverse opened up to me in the coffee aisle at Publix.”
She’s noticed the prices for homebrewing have gone up, too, but that’s nothing compared to her coffee shop habit. A bag of beans that lasts for weeks costs her the same as one cup of latte.
Cooksey misses the social aspect of visiting the café, where she is greeted by name by baristas. But she was surprised to find that she actually preferred the way homemade coffee tasted.
“I’ll be damned if it doesn’t taste good,” she says.
Growing up, Donelson would watch enviously as her mother made a daily trip for coffee (also to McDonald’s, plus 10 sugars and five creamers), and she repeated the habit. I went from college to the Air Force to a government job as a data and AI strategist, but through it all, coffee was there.
She noticed the increasing cost of her daily routine, but kept it up until a government shutdown cut her paycheck last fall and she was forced to cut back on her spending. Looking for an alternative in the morning, I found a blend of Republic of Tea with a little healthy honey.
“Twenty cents a cup compared to $7 or $8 a cup,” she says. “Mathematics makes sense.”
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Matt Sedensky can be reached at msedensky@ap.org and https://x.com/sedensky