Decaf Coffee Pricing
Why does decaffeinated coffee, decaf (or in France: deca), cost more?!
That was the original motivation for me to setup my own coffee roasting station.
Isn’t that a lot of work for decaf??
Well, in the grocery store decaf is about three times the price of caffeinated coffee.
What gives?!
The reason is the decaffeination process that removes caffeine also reduces the quality of beans.
A high grade caffeinated coffee becomes an average decaffeinated coffee.
Problem is, the higher the grade of coffee, the less supply there is.
So the triple the price difference between caffeinated and decaffinated makes sense - decaf coffee beans use expensive coffee!
Who would want to drink low quality decaf?!
Also, the market for decaf coffee is only a subset of caffeinated coffee (even though one can drink decaf in a wider range of day…) - so higher initial costs with lower supply and lower demand brings the pricing for decaf to be three times higher than its caffeinated counter part.
At least in the grocery store!
When I check the pricing of coffee from online specialty coffee shops - decaf coffee prices are within 10% of the caffeinated versions.
So, I basically geeked out coffee because of a price difference of decaf at my local grocery store.
🤦
If you really want to get into the nitty gritty of decaf, this video covers decaf way more.
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