The Iced Coffee Price Gouge

It’s the time of year when it gets so humid you pray you don’t drown by simply trying to breathe air. It’s also the time when my patience wears thin and my contempt for the “iced coffee price gouge” boils over. Why does iced coffee cost more than regular coffee, because they are marketing and sales geniuses who take advantage of sweaty caffeine fiends. That’s why. Let’s break it down.

1. It’s ridiculously hot outside and coffee shops aren’t going to sell as much hot coffee.

2. Iced coffee is made from old, leftover coffee. I worked at an ice cream parlor and we never brewed coffee for the sole purpose of using it for iced coffee. The iced coffee urn was full of days old coffee. Yummy!

3. You get less coffee in iced coffee because they fill the admittedly larger cup full of ice. However, I bet a large iced coffee only has as much coffee liquid as in a medium hot coffee. In fact, I’m going to investigate it today and will get back to you.

4. Iced coffee costs up to a dollar more than hot coffee of the same size.

This is a racket. You get a smaller amount of coffee liquid, it isn’t fresh, and you pay more for it. Where does the added price come from? Some claim it’s the cost making ice and refrigerating the old coffee. True it probably costs money to make ice and paying higher fuel costs in the summer, but sodas are still cheap and they’re packed with ice too. Plus, some places will only charge you a few cents for a cup full of ice.

The reason is supply and demand or in laymen’s terms, “because they have us by the balls.” We need coffee, we’re addicted consumers, and it’s too damn hot outside.

I’m not writing this to get people to boycott ice coffee, or picket stores for screwing us. I mean what can we do? Anything short of an anti-trust lawsuit will not break this Axis of Iced Coffee.

UPDATE: Rumor has it that ING charges the same for iced and regular coffee. Give them your business.

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