Back to FINBRIDGE
Contents
  1. 01A cup is mostly water.
  2. 02A price is made in layers.
  3. 03What comes next.
A white cup of black coffee resting on a precision scale with no visible reading

ONE CUP · ONE PRICE

Unpacking a cup.

What makes up the price of coffee? How much reaches the people who grow it? We take one familiar cup apart as if it were a product—carefully, layer by layer.

GENERATED IMAGE · ILLUSTRATIVE

A white cup arrives across the morning counter. Most of what it holds is water. Yet its price carries a much longer journey: farms near the equator, ports and roasters, along with rent, equipment and human labour.

THE 30-SECOND READ

  • In a typical filter brew, almost all of the finished drink is water. At the Golden Cup guideline ratio, 150 mL of brew water corresponds to about 8 g of coffee.
  • A detailed 2021 study of German packaged household coffee found that cultivation, roasting, coffee tax and retail each accounted for roughly one fifth of retail value.
  • That study is not a breakdown of a café drink, and it is not a current price sheet. The boundary matters as much as the number.

01 · MEASURE

A cup is mostly water.

Dissolved coffee makes up a little over one hundredth of the finished drink. The rest is water.

≈1%Dissolved coffee solids in the drink; the filter-brew guideline is 1.15–1.35%.

A filter-brew reference point. Espresso is different.

See how

A cup is mostly water.

IN ONE SECONDA small measure of coffee. The rest is water and time.

The Specialty Coffee Association of America’s Golden Cup Standard sets a filter-brew reference point of 55 g of coffee per litre of water, with a tolerance of ±10%, and a target brew-water temperature of about 93°C at the coffee bed.[1] Applied to 150 mL of brew water, that ratio corresponds to 8.25 g of coffee—about 8 g.

Not all of those 8 g dissolve. The standard’s preferred extraction range is 18–22%. Roughly one fifth of the ground coffee moves into the water; most remains in the filter. Dissolved coffee solids make up only 1.15–1.35% of the finished drink.[1]

This is a filter-brew standard. Espresso follows a different brewing logic.

Water falling onto ground coffee during filter brewing
93.0°C Brew water at the coffee bed (±3°C)
Reference points: extraction 18–22% / dissolved solids 1.15–1.35% / 55 g coffee per litre of water.[1] Generated image; temperature scale is illustrative.

02 · BREAKDOWN

Four layers carry similar weight.

Cultivation, roasting, retail and coffee tax: in one study of packaged coffee, each accounted for roughly one fifth of the retail price.

≈1/5 eachCultivation, roasting, German coffee tax and retail each represented 21–23%.

German household coffee in 2021—not a café cup.

See the layers

A price is made in layers.

IN ONE SECONDCultivation, transport, roasting, retail, tax. A single price is built across the chain.

First, an important boundary: this is not a breakdown of a café drink. The clearest example available here comes instead from packaged coffee sold for home consumption.

Across 41 coffee products sold by German retailers in 2021, the weighted-average retail price was €9.71/kg, including VAT and German coffee tax.[3] Retail, roasting, coffee tax and cultivation each represented 21–23% of that value. International transport plus collection and export at origin accounted for 6.8%; VAT accounted for 6.5%.[3]

01Cultivation21–23%
02Transport, collection & export6.8%
03Roasting21–23%
04German coffee tax21–23%
05Retail21–23%
06VAT6.5%
Value distribution in German household coffee in 2021, at a retail price of €9.71/kg.[3] This is not a café-drink breakdown. Bar lengths are approximate visual guides.
Follow the layers

After costs and taxes, total profit across the chain was estimated at €1.09/kg—11% of the retail price.[3, p. 43]

For low-priced private-label ground coffee, the study estimated a retail-stage loss of €0.42/kg.[3, p. 32] National-brand capsules, by contrast, sold for €35.98/kg in the same modelling, illustrating how strongly format and branding can change the value structure.[3, pp. 35–36]

The study covers German household coffee in 2021, excluding instant coffee and foodservice. It does not directly describe the price of a café drink today.[3]

FREE STORY02 / 08

PASSPORT · THE STORY CONTINUES

Beyond the price swings
lies a global market.

The continuing edition follows global prices, climate and supply, demand, signals for the years ahead, and the effects on companies and cash flow.

PRICECLIMATEDEMANDFINANCE
  • 03–04The price wave and a climate-shifting production map
  • 05–07Global supply, demand regions and five signals to watch
  • 08How higher prices flow through to companies and cash flow
The continuing edition is in preparation The continuing edition is in preparation and is not currently available for purchase. No payment or subscription will be initiated.

FREE PREVIEW · SOURCES

Sources for the free edition.

  1. Specialty Coffee Association of America, “SCAA Golden Cup Standard” (revised 23 December 2015). View the original source
  2. BASIC (Bureau d’analyse sociétale d’intérêt collectif), author; Global Coffee Platform, IDH and Solidaridad, editors, “The Grounds for Sharing: A study of value distribution in the coffee industry” (2024; German data from 2021). View the original source

All photographs and backgrounds are digitally generated illustrations. This free preview ends after Chapter 02; later chapters are not included here.