MILAN – Devoted fans of the little silver-and-red cans woke up to bitter news Thursday: Illycaffe, the aristocrat of espresso, is raising prices again in January, marking the third hike in twelve months, because apparently coffee beans have decided they deserve yacht money.
The hoped-for sigh of relief from eased US tariffs on Brazilian coffee never arrived. Beans glanced at the lower duties, shrugged, and kept their record-breaking prices like a barista who knows you’ll still tip 20% even when the latte costs more than lunch.
Morning routines across the globe just got slightly more expensive and infinitely more dramatic. Office workers who once treated Illy as a modest luxury are now performing mental gymnastics to justify $18 tins while quietly wondering if instant might be “basically the same if you squint.”
Cristina Scocchia, Illycaffe’s chief executive, delivered the news with the weary tone of someone who has personally apologized to every bean. “There is a limit to how much a company can absorb a level of green coffee price which is so unhealthily high,” she said, sounding like a doctor diagnosing espresso with lifestyle inflation.
Arabica reached an all-time peak last month when US tariffs on Brazil decided to crash the party at the exact moment harvests everywhere else phoned in sick. President Trump later widened tariff exemptions for Brazilian coffee, an act the market rewarded by lowering prices approximately the width of a pinky swear.
Rabobank’s Carlos Mera calmly explained that grocery shelf prices lag commodity costs by “many months, sometimes a year,” which is analyst-speak for “start hoarding now, peasants.”
Illycaffe loyally kept buying Brazilian beans even during peak tariff drama because, as Scocchia noted, their signature blend would throw a tantrum without them. The company has been eating cost increases like a champ, protecting sales volumes while margins quietly weep in the corner.
Demand, astonishingly, refuses to flinch. Customers apparently treat high-end coffee the way they treat Wi-Fi: non-negotiable, even if it costs more than the rent in 2012.
Scocchia blames speculation more than actual shortages, hinting that somewhere a trader is sipping the very same espresso while betting your breakfast will cost extra. She expects unroasted beans to finally settle between $2.80 and $3 per pound—sometime in the distant, utopian second half of 2026.
In the meantime, Illycaffe is eyeing production partnerships inside the United States, where 20% of its revenue currently vanishes into the pockets of caffeine addicts who believe good coffee is a personality trait.
The company insists the market will still grow at a polite single-digit pace, because nothing says “resilient consumer” like paying luxury prices for a legal stimulant that smells like productivity.
Shoppers hoping for dramatic relief received the corporate equivalent of a sad trombone. “We were hoping for a much more dramatic drop,” Scocchia admitted, voice heavy with the sorrow of a thousand overpriced cappuccinos.
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