$7 coffees are the tipping point for 28,000 cafes

January 25, 2026

This is my fourteenth year of working from home. I brew my coffee, and when I need a hit while driving, I almost always buy a cheap $2 coffee from a service station or convenience store.

While traveling around New South Wales and regional Victoria over the Christmas break, I visited several cafes and was shocked to pay $6.50 for a cup of coffee.

Such price inflation makes it challenging to understand how so many Australians are still willing to purchase café-made coffees each day.

Upon returning home in January, we learned that the latest monthly CPI report from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) revealed that coffee prices in Australia have surged more than five times faster than overall inflation, driven mainly by a global shortage of coffee beans.