Java jolt

Yesterday morning, on the way in to work after a visit to the vampires friendly folk at my neighborhood lab, I went through the McDonald's drive through to grab a coffee to replenish the gallons quarts pint or so of liquid they had taken from my veins.  Even allowing for the recent increase in the local expo tax, it appeared the price of a large cup of coffee had gone up a nickel.  Turns out I was right.

If the linked story is correct, coffee bean prices have gone up 41% in the last three months.  For those of us who buy more coffee than bread, that is significant.  A month or so ago I laid in a new stock of coffee for home consumption; at the time I thought the sticker shock I was experiencing was the result of not having purchased coffee beans in quite some time.  Silly me.

As of yet, Starbucks has not raised prices, but an increase must be in the offing - they have begun heavily pushing the purchase and use of gift cards, which entitle the bearer to certain discounts on each drink.  What better way to sneakily increase prices than to increase the price, then give the purchaser a smaller-than-the-increase discount on their purchase?

Will the coming price increases tame the raging caffeine beast within?  Not likely.  I prefer my coffee weak, anyway, and can stretch my home stock indefinitely.

Besides, if I run out, there's always chocolate as an alternate caffeine source.