Yahoo Finance $110 latte to go, please: Is this the 'world's most expensive coffee'?
How much are you willing to pay for coffee?
Some budget-conscious coffee lovers might turn their nose up at anything costing more than $3.50.
But one Californian cafe is asking for US $75, or roughly $110, for what it’s calling the world’s most expensive cuppa, as reported in Associated Press.
Why is it so expensive?
The beans are award-winning, said Bo Thiara, the owner of Klatch Coffee’s San Francisco branch.
The coffee uses the ‘Elida Natural Geisha’ coffee bean that sold for an eye-watering US $803 (AU $1,160) per pound at an auction after it won the Best of Panama coffee competition, which Thiara said was the coffee equivalent of the Oscars.
The high quality and limited quantity of the coffee bean saw it top last year’s winning beans that went for US $601 (AU $870) a pound.
Of the 45kg of beans that was available for purchase, Klatch bought 4.5 kilograms, making it the only North American cafe chain to have it, with the rest going to Japan, China and Taiwan.
Nabbing the coffee would have set Klatch back $11,613 and would produce about 80 cups of coffee.
It means Klatch will only be making $880, which would actually see the cafe chain bank a net loss.
So $110 per cup isn’t starting to look so expensive anymore.
And it’s still cheaper than a $150-a-cup brew in Melbourne that made headlines in October last year.
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What’s it like, and is it any good?
Thiara told AP the coffee is a rare variety of Arabica hailing from Panama with a floral, tea-like flavour reminiscent of jasmine and berries.
And it’s already got glowing reviews, according to some patrons that tried some free samples at Klatch’s San Francisco branch on Wednesday.
San Francisco resident Lauren Svensson said the coffee was “very different” from any other she’d ever had.
“My mind was a little blown about the fact that a US $75 cup of coffee even exists … but it was shockingly good,” she said.
Her friend Charlie Shinhaseni also seemed to enjoy it despite himself.
“When I first looked at it, I thought it would be hyper pretentious, and I would think of all the different notes for the coffee, but I was too busy enjoying it,” he said.
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