Been away for a while, busy with building a greenhouse and home renovations, among other things, including the Morning JAVA website. In fact, I've been away for such a long stretch, I got an email from PublishOx Admin reminding me to log in since they 'miss me'. It's ok, I've missed you guys too! It's great to be back. Besides, I didn't want to lose my login access. Good news though, even though I hadn't written in a bit, my blog still achieved almost 6,700 hits solely based on my old posts, so far this month and there's still a week to go.

So, to get back into high gear, I thought I'd point out another significant, record high that just happened this week. No, it's not gold this time, although gold did hit a record high $2,800+ last November and came close to breaking that record high just in the last couple of days. Nor is it Cocoa, which exploded in price a year ago around this time to record highs and continues to hold above $11,000 per tonne.

This time, it's COFFEE! Tell me it's not true. Nooooooo!

Everything is costing more mainly because of inflation but the real culprit this time has been the weather. Brazil's main coffee zones have experienced much less rainfall, by about 50% in the last season, driving up the futures price of Arabica beans. The 2024/2025 season saw a deficit of over 5 million bags. For the 2025/2026 season, that deficit is expected to grow to over 8 million bags but it could reach a massive 11 million. Arabica March 2025 futures have just surpassed $3.47 per pound!

Robusta beans meanwhile, are at 6 week highs because of similar weather issues in Vietnam. Yet, because of high prices, the country's coffee exports brought in some $400 million in revenue just in the first 15 days of 2025! Will Brasil's coffee exporters experience similar windfalls? Not so fast. It turns out the Real is at 8 week highs, putting a slight dent in exports. If it isn't the weather, it's their inflation rate at 4.5%.

So either way we look at it, our cup of coffee is likely to get more expensive. Of course, the coffee shop giants will jack up prices a few percentage points higher to take advantage (gouge) and eventually, when coffee bean prices finally come back down and they will eventually when things improve, don't expect those coffee chains to lower their prices. As we've so often seen over the years and decades, once the price of a cup of coffee goes up, it stays up. Meaning more profits for the giants.

The solution is to start brewing your own coffee at home. It tastes so much better anyways. Since last spring, coffee prices have almost doubled. Just another couple percentage points and it will have doubled. Would you rather pay $2 a cup or 10 cents a cup. The choice is up to you.

As for my website, I'm hoping to have it up and running by March 1. In the meantime, you're welcome to peruse through my old posts.

Please leave comments below. Tips always appreciated!