Why is the arabica bean behind Italy's espresso price debate?

A three-time coffee champion was fined 1,000 euros, about 7,109 yuan, after a decaf espresso was sold at 2 euros without a price listed on the physical menu. The case highlights Italy's long-standing cheap espresso culture, where one euro was the norm for years and 1.5 euros became the accepted ceiling after the pandemic pushed costs up.

Rising green coffee bean prices, labor, and rent forced many Italian cafés to raise espresso to roughly 1.5 euros, drawing complaints from the consumer group Codacons. Espresso was added to UNESCO's candidate list for Intangible Cultural Heritage in January 2022, which shows how closely the drink is tied to national identity and makes any price change feel like a cultural issue.

Italian espresso is regarded as a national cultural symbol and has long maintained a low price of around 1 euro. After the pandemic, costs rose, and some cafés raised the price to 1.5 euros, which sparked consumer dissatisfaction. Recently, a three-time coffee champion was fined 1,000 euros (about 7,109 yuan) because a decaf espresso was priced at 2 euros and the price was not marked on the physical menu. He posted a question: why do Italians accept a 2-euro newspaper but feel that a 1.2-euro espresso is not worth it? When the specialty coffee wave meets the traditional low-price culture, the pricing dilemma of Italian espresso is worth pondering. Front Street Coffee continues to follow global coffee industry developments and brings you in-depth reporting.

Italy is globally recognized as a major stronghold of espresso culture. In January 2022, espresso was included in UNESCO's candidate list for the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, which is enough to show that in the hearts of Italians it is far more than a cup of refreshing drink; it is part of a lifestyle, cultural tradition, and even national identity.

For this reason, espresso in local Italian cafés has always been very affordable. According to statistics from the International Coffee Organization (ICO), during the decade from 2002 to 2012, even though the inflation rate reached 2.63%, most cafés in non-tourist areas still kept espresso at around 1 euro. After the pandemic broke out in 2020, this price was still generally maintained.

However, as the pandemic continued, green coffee bean prices climbed and labor and rent costs increased, forcing many Italian cafés to raise espresso to about 1.5 euros. This change was immediately met with complaints from the Italian consumer organization Codacons, and some members of the public also believed that the price increase would harm consumers' interests.

More than two years later, although most people have accepted the fact that espresso prices have risen, some still find it hard to let go and generally regard 1.5 euros as the price ceiling for espresso. But this is only consumers' psychological expectation; legally there is no mandatory rule. Thus the puzzling incident in the headline occurred.

Recently, a local café got into trouble because a decaf espresso was priced above 1.5 euros. The customer believed the price was too high and that the shop had not marked the price of decaf coffee on the physical menu in front of the cash register, so they called the police. The customer said that in Italy espresso, whether caffeinated or not, is usually priced between 1.3 and 1.5 euros; this shop selling it for 2 euros was really too expensive, and there was no clearly marked price, so the café must be held responsible.

The café owner cried foul: "It was written! It was written on the electronic menu!" But the police still determined that he had failed to clearly display the price, because he had not written the price of decaf espresso on the physical menu, and therefore issued a 1,000-euro fine (about 7,109 yuan).

Afterward, the owner complained on social media: this is very unreasonable! Because decaf coffee beans themselves cost more, he uses decaf coffee beans produced in Mexico, and the baristas in the shop are also very professional, with strict requirements for every cup of espresso.

He also said that he did not think the fine was completely unreasonable, because there was indeed something lacking—the price of decaf espresso was not marked on the physical menu. What was truly unreasonable was that consumers assume espresso must be cheap, causing cafés to prefer selling at a loss rather than daring to raise prices.

But he did not go along with the crowd, and in the end, because espresso was a few tenths of a euro more expensive than at other shops, the customer called the police. In Italy, 99.9% of cafés do not separately mark the price of decaf espresso on the menu; usually, whatever the regular espresso costs, decaf costs the same. This penalty means other coffee shops may also face the same risk, so he posted to remind fellow industry members.

This café owner, Francesco Sanapo, had won the Italian coffee championship three times and is quite well known in the local coffee circle. After the incident, he published an article on a website titled "Can Italians Be Persuaded to Pay More for Espresso?"

He pointed out that espresso is deeply rooted in national cultural identity, and Italians believe it should be a drink everyone can afford, so the price must be cheap. Therefore, even a small increase still makes most consumers dissatisfied.

The article mentioned that Italians do not think a 2-euro newspaper is expensive, but they think a 1.2-euro espresso is not worth it. What people do not know, however, is that the espresso they drink today is no longer made from Robusta beans. Now the vast majority of Italian cafés have switched to higher-quality Arabica beans to make espresso.

As specialty coffee spreads in Italy, low-cost Robusta coffee is gradually being replaced by high-quality Arabica beans. In 2020, the average price of 1 kilogram of Arabica coffee beans was more than twice that of 1 kilogram of Robusta beans, which means it is already impossible to still sell espresso at 1 euro. But Italians have long been used to this price, and many cafés, fearing loss of customers, can only sell espresso at a loss or use low-quality beans.

But Francesco believes this is not a long-term solution. Although it can retain customers, the quality of espresso will only get worse and worse. Now that coffee bean quality is constantly improving, people cannot remain only at the low-quality, low-price stage, so providing high-quality espresso is even more important.

The price of Italian espresso being "rewritten" was precisely something Francesco took the lead in promoting. He believes that espresso in his café, made by highly skilled baristas using high-quality beans and extracted more precisely by the coffee machine, is worthy of a price adjustment from 1 euro to 1.5 euros.

He said that to preserve a culture, inheriting it without changing it cannot take it further. If more people are to have a deeper and better impression of Italian espresso, the quality of every cup needs to be improved.

Francesco was the first to break the price ceiling for espresso in people's minds. Although he met with quite a bit of opposition at first, it did not have too great an impact on the café. He said that as long as the barista explains the reason for the price increase well when the customer orders and talks more about coffee's impact on society and ecology, most customers are willing to accept it.

Many coffee shops raise prices simply because others have raised prices, without giving much explanation, and the baristas' skills are not up to standard, while the espresso quality remains the same, which naturally makes consumers dissatisfied. Often it is not that consumers are unwilling to pay a little more, but that the service and coffee quality make them feel it is not worth it.

At the end of the article, Francesco wrote: "If cafés can give customers better service, no customer will complain that the coffee is expensive, because the whole consumption experience is worthwhile."

Image source: Internet

The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.