KC's coffee prices rising faster than anywhere else in the country
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The price of a cup of coffee in Missouri rose 11% over the past year, the steepest jump in the country, and Kansas City cafés are feeling an even bigger hit.
The big picture: Missouri's coffee isn't the priciest in the nation, but prices have climbed faster here than anywhere else, according to Toast data.
By the numbers: Missouri's average price for a regular coffee hit $3.33, up 11% from last year, while cold brew climbed 9.1% to $5.49.
- Luckily for Kansas, prices barely moved, increasing 0.5% to $3.00 for hot coffee and 1.7% to $5.09 for cold brew.
- Nationwide, the median hot coffee costs $3.52, a 2.9% rise.
💭Abbey's thought bubble: I have this tiny habit of accidentally wandering into City Market Coffee every morning for a cold brew, so my wallet has absolutely felt the effects of the increase.
What they're saying: Ian Davis, who has run Blip Coffee Roasters in the West Bottoms for 11 years, tells Axios that managing rising costs has become part of running a coffee shop.
- "We're paying about three times what we used to in the 2010s for coffee beans," Davis says. "If we passed that on to customers, you wouldn't be paying $3. You'd be paying $6 or $7 a cup."
- Made in KC Café co-founder Keith Bradley tells Axios his cafés have also faced rising costs for beans, pastries and supplies, but they haven't raised prices since early 2023, choosing to absorb the increases like Blip.
Between the lines: The price increase is driven by global tariffs and unpredictable commodity markets.
- U.S. tariffs on Brazilian imports raised costs for roasters after a 50% tax took effect in August, halving exports and driving up bean prices, which are now hitting U.S. cafés and consumers.
- Davis also points to the global "C market," where coffee is traded like any other commodity. "It's unpredictable," he says. "Prices change from one harvest to the next, and lately, they've only gone higher."
- "It's not just beans," he says. "Everything's gone up — gas, insurance, utilities. It's hard to tell what's just inflation and what's something bigger."
The bottom line: Coffee costs are up across the board, but for KC shops, the bigger challenge is how long they can keep even bigger increases for customers off the menu.