Now Announcing the $12 Cup of Coffee

by Jonathon Ramsey (RSS feed)
May 6th 2010 at 5:01AM

New York City's Cafe Grumpy might not take itself all that seriously, but it does take its coffee and its mission – lifting the spirits of undercaffeinated grumps – very seriously. Its home page lists its brews and coffees by name and provenance, and clicking on any of them will provide tasting notes and a more thorough history. You can quickly find out that the Wahana Estate is a Rasuna varietal from Indonesia and the Vintage '97 Immortal Nectar tea is cave-aged with a"sherry fragrance & earthy finish."

If you know your coffee well enough to make sense of all that, then you might want to drop into Cafe Grumpy for its latest serious offering: a $12 cup of java using hand-picked beans from Ethiopia, whose cherries never touch the ground. To answer the question Vincent Vega asked of the $5 shake in Pulp Fiction: no, it doesn't have bourbon in it. The president of the company distributing the beans says it has a "cacophony of nuances," which is apparently code for "apricot, pineapple, bergamot, kiwi and lime," with some chocolate deep down in there and a "super clean" finish.

If the coffee itself doesn't wake you up, then $25 tab for two paper cups of joe should at least raise a morning eyebrow...

Tags: cafe grumpy, coffee, expensive coffee, new york, new york city

Filed under: Dining

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)

stephentbell May 6th 2010 9:53AM

A "cacophony of nuances?" Isn't a cacophony "harsh or discordant?" Sounds awful!

al schrader May 10th 2010 5:17AM

A cacaphony. Oh, that's the name people use to describe the guy selling $1.29 coffees for $12.00 A cacaphony is similar to a plethora, but not as interated as a smathering. It's smaller than a googleplex, but larger than a nanobit.
In the end coffee is just a bean that takes you back to the same old grind...Al-

reallytorkedoff May 6th 2010 11:21PM

Cacophony = "loud confusing disagreeable sounds"

http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=cacophony

Nice catch!

HAHAHAHAHAHA :D

Rich39 May 9th 2010 8:09PM

$12 cup of coffee. What's the old saying? A fool and his money will soon part. A person who pays $12 for a cup of coffee will pay $20 for a cup of coffee, or higher.
They are not the smartest peope in the world.

Sarah May 9th 2010 8:36PM

I'll say. I've met people like this; one has lost everything and took out home equity loans just to buy fancy cars for high school grads, thinking it would buy good husband for her daughters. It got them married but eventually both daughters ended up supporting their husbands. It was also used for vacations and she never worked a day in her life. I've met one who would buy two lattes a day while at college and owed on a loan for her degree and couldn't even keep up with that and owed more for it on a second loan. Met others who think money is about what you can buy and that it's acquisition is about glamour, but it isn't at all for some people. I can't believe that mindset. Especially when you consider what kind of socio-economic background they come from. I've seen them lose good jobs because even tho they had good pay, they expected even more, it would just be incredible considering what they did for a living. I don't know where these people get this, but until the credit stops coming, and unemployment requires them to at least take a part time any job over no job which they don't, especially when they know extensions are coming.

OBigRondog May 9th 2010 8:44PM

Just remember how dumb they may not be! They can afford to pay the $12. or what ever else the thieves are asking and don't say a word, because they can afford it. They didn't get to the point of affording $12 cups of coffee without having some smarts.

Smplykatt May 10th 2010 1:49AM

WTF do mortgages and credit have to do with freakin coffee???????

Kareem May 9th 2010 8:31PM

I can buy 2 32.5 oz can of Folgers Black Silk or Gourmet Supreme for $12 on sale @ Target. And I bet that Folgers is 10 times better than that coffee Cafe Grumpy is selling.

Ann May 9th 2010 9:23PM

Hi Kareem...I love Black Silk also. It is much better than even Starbucks. I make my own for a few cents a cup and put it a to-go cup and Iam off feeling great!

keith May 9th 2010 9:41PM

Kareem, Folgers is crap and this scam is even worse

Paul May 9th 2010 10:58PM

You can't compare that grocery store swill to real coffee. Sorry, Charlie!

Barry May 10th 2010 3:50AM

I agree with you 100%

Terry May 9th 2010 8:26PM

It really is a shame that they can't just shoot scam artists like this and make the world a better place.

Bob May 14th 2010 12:36AM

If someone charges me $12 for a cup of coffee, it had better come with a complimentary attractive blonde.

George May 9th 2010 8:42PM

I'm a coffee hound but I'd quit drinking coffee before paying $12.00 a cup!! As long as there are idoits that will pay the 12 bucks, they'll keep selling it. It's kinda like illegal drug sales in America. We blame the drug pushers, but the real problem is users in America. If there is no demand, there would be no sales.

Ronnie May 9th 2010 8:44PM

If someone wants and could afford a 12 follar cup of coffee ? That's their business...
Anf the one that said "doesn't cacophony mean discordant and harsh " you know it id since you looked it up ...

NotEvenInNYC May 9th 2010 8:48PM

It is a Cacophony; a cacophony of B.S.

I thought that other place over charged.

I love my coffee. I have visited many countries where it is grown. I have been to the fields where it is picked. Sure there are big growers where machines are used to harvest. The places I have been are fields of people-pickers.

$12.00 for a cup of Joe? No thanks, even if you all are buying.

Perhaps it really is true what they say....People, some people, really believe that the more they pay for something the better it "Must," be.

R james May 9th 2010 8:56PM

Cover any common product with BS and call it "gourmet" and voila! You can get what you ask. $12.00 keeps me in java for a week. I laugh at Starbucks prices and wonder about the people who pay them. Mickey D sells a decent cup of morning coffee for a lot less if you want to wait in a drive thru. Better still, I buy my own beans from a torrefacto store and grind them when needed. For ten bucks, I get all I need for a couple of weeks!

cronkbrast May 9th 2010 8:59PM

OBigRondog
May 9th 2010 8:44PM
Just remember how dumb they may not be! They can afford to pay the $12. or what ever else the thieves are asking and don't say a word, because they can afford it. They didn't get to the point of affording $12 cups of coffee without having some smarts.

==

Sorry bub, ANYONE that pays TWELVE DOLLARS for a cup of joe HAS NO SMARTS, PERIOD!!!!!!!!!!! Whether or not they can afford it!

No cup of coffee is worth 12 bucks! Not just coffee!