CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — A guilty pleasure for some, a necessity for others. Whether it’s hot or iced, coffee is a daily grind for many.
Coastal Bend resident Sharon Schwangler has noticed it's costing her more these days to get a cup of Joe.
"I remember coming here when it was $2.50 a cup," Schwangler said. "So, it’s going up quite a bit over the years, the biggest significant increase has been since the pandemic.”
She said she's paying more than $5 for a large cup nowadays.
Coffee is becoming more expensive as the price of beans keeps percolating over the years.
Some local coffee shops are seeing a double digit increase in costs.
“Probably say about like a 30 percent increase," said Roasted Coffee store manager Christian Floyd. "Definitely that’s a lot, that’s why it slowed down for a lot of people like, getting beans in.”
Inflation is affecting the price of pretty much everything a shop needs to remain open.
“We’ve had to raise prices, we try to avoid it, but in the end we can’t absorb all those prices," said Coral Bean owner Curt Flowers. "And, we have to pass it along otherwise we’re going to go out of business.”
Experts say the driving factors behind the price hike of coffee – the war in Ukraine and climate change.
“I hope this is not going to be a trend, I mean this is not going to be a long term trend," said Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi economics professor Jim Lee. "But, it’s likely to be this way because I'm worried that this is part of the story of climate change.”
