Why My Coffee Just Got More Expensive (and What I’m Doing About It)

This week, the price of my daily coffee went up $3.00 a bag.

This is not because of a change in farming practices or packaging upgrades—but because of tariffs.

Beacon Coffee, my go-to roaster here on the Central Coast, sent out a letter explaining the rising costs:

“Due to increased costs, specifically with the tariffs imposed, all of our green coffee has increased quickly and more than we had anticipated. Everything from the transport of the coffee to the bags we are putting it in have gone up. The single origin chocolate we use in the cafe is impacted too…”

These price increases are just beginning, but the impact will ripple outward.
With rising costs around the corner, now is the time for me to take stock of the few imported items I do buy and consider purchasing them in bulk before prices rise further due to tariffs.

For example, I already buy Lotus Foods rice in 25-pound bags, but I plan to stock up while I can. I choose to buy Lotus Foods rice because of how it’s grown. Their network of smallholder farmers in the Global South use a water-wise, chemical-free method that grows bigger, more nutrient-rich grains while lowering arsenic levels and keeping fields dry (a method I wrote about in the Rice and Water chapter of Eat Less Water). Sadly, the one U.S. farmer using this method I profiled in Louisiana is now out of business. As far as I know, no other farms using this system exist in the U.S. The tariffs will not deter my support for Lotus Foods rice, but they do require me to stock up more than I otherwise would.

The same goes for organic sugar—Costco sells it in 10-pound bags. Now is the time to buy more, like one or two more bags as none of us know how long these taxes on imported goods will last once they start to raise prices.

I store food I purchase in bulk, like Lotus rice, in food-safe containers. I found these containers at Smart & Final.

Which leads me to introduce you to Azure Standard. They are a great source for high-quality, nutrient-dense organic food in bulk. They sell sugar in bulk that is not only organic which is better but fair trade too which is best. The prices, while sure to go up, are less than grocery stores to begin with, because the pick up location is often in the driveway of a private home. At least that’s the case for me in Oxnard, California.

If you’re not familiar with Azure Standard I highly recommend checking them out. In fact, I’m planning to feature Azure Standard in an upcoming Kitchen Activist Live Conversation so we can learn more about their unique distribution model that is family-owned and started sometime in 70’s. BTW, they sell Equal Exchange organic/fair trade coffee in bulk.

In a recent Kitchen Activist Podcast episode, I asked organic dairy farmer Maureen Knapp how tariffs are affecting her.
“I don’t think they will impact the farm directly,” she said, “At least not until we need to buy more farm equipment.”

That’s because Maureen’s farm—like others in the Organic Valley cooperative—grows and sells food locally, without reliance on imported fertilizer or chemicals. Their pasture grows enough to feed their herds throughout the growing season, since they methodically move the animals from paddock to paddock twice a day or weekly, depending on the season. The art of grazing is something she learned as a student of holistic management and makes her organic dairy farm more resilient to global shocks and extreme weather.