Chicago-based café co-owner Nikki Bravo has made the difficult decision to raise drink prices by roughly 15 % across her four Momentum Coffee locations. She says the increase is tied to a 15 % jump in the cost of coffee beans compared to a year ago, forcing her business to roast more beans in-house and absorb higher expenses on items like cups and sleeves. Bravo adds that with the minimum wage in Chicago rising to $16.60 per hour, the pressure on margins has become unsustainable. “At some point we just had to pass it along, we couldn’t continue to eat it,” she admits. 

But it’s not just supply-costs that are causing strain. Inflation remains stubbornly high and has made customers more cautious and less willing to treat themselves to a take-out coffee, Bravo notes. With beans primarily sourced from Africa, and production affected by climate, tariffs, and global supply-chain issues, small cafés like Momentum are navigating a complex terrain of rising input costs and shrinking consumer willingness to pay. 

Read the full article here: U.S. coffee prices spike due to tariffs and poor weather