Coffee drinkers ditch coffee as price rises continue to bite

13 September 2024

Australian food critic Terry Durack, writing for the Sydney Morning Herald:

Coffee’s changing. The cost of beans continues to rise, and everyone is on the lookout for alternatives. Old-fashioned espresso coffee is in danger of being shouldered aside, just as cow’s milk is making way for oat, almond and soy.

With coffee prices rising, people are apparently looking for alternatives to coffee-based brews, and maybe I don’t blame them.

A month or so ago, I bought a small cappuccino after stopping by a place in Redfern — one of the inner suburbs of Sydney — for five dollars. That’s about what I usually pay, for a large drink, but this was a small serve. A super small serve. The cup must’ve been two-thirds the size of the usual sized small/regular takeaway coffee cups. The alternatives to cow’s milk I get. But now I see why some people are keen to try alternatives to their once daily caffeine fix.