Iced coffee is one of the most preferred coffee beverages in coffee shop menus. This beverage is what we crave on a hot day when we are looking for a stimulating beverage to overcome the heat.
A simple iced coffee is made with coffee concentrate and lots of ice. You can enhance its taste by adding sugar, milk, sweeteners, and other flavoring agents, such as vanilla extract and cinnamon.
Despite its simplicity, iced coffee is quite flavorful and packed with caffeine. But some people still choose hot caffeinated beverages over iced coffee. They say it’s too expensive. Is this true? Let’s find out.
How Much Is Iced Coffee?
Unfortunately, while it may seem like a simple coffee beverage, iced coffee is quite expensive. It costs about 3 dollars to buy a glass of iced coffee, which is double the amount it costs to buy a regular cup of black coffee.
This is too expensive, especially when you consider that coffee drinkers prefer to take more than one cup or glass of coffee a day.
You may wonder why the cost of iced coffee matters to coffee drinkers. After all, it’s a great-tasting beverage that gives us the caffeine we need and cools us down.
Well, coffee drinkers have a reputation for scrutinizing the costs of different coffee beverages. This is because many of them buy at least one cup of coffee daily, and any exorbitant coffee beverage prices can significantly dent their wallets.
Why Is Iced Coffee Expensive?
A significant reason for complaints surrounding the price of iced coffee is its simple makeup. After all, a glass of iced coffee seems mostly made up of ice.
In fact, some coffee houses, such as Starbucks, have faced backlash from customers claiming their iced coffee is loaded with ice to drive sales.
So many people find it hard to pinpoint why this coffee beverage is overpriced. Here are five reasons.
1. The cost of ice
While you may think ice is an easy coffee-making ingredient to come across because it’s just frozen water, it’s not the case.
Coffee houses have to spend a lot of money on commercial ice machines to prepare the ice needed for cold coffee beverages.
Making ice for coffee brewing is also quite strenuous and time-consuming, even when you use a machine.
This is because ice for coffee making is different from the regular ice you make at home. Coffee makers must prepare stronger ice that will not dilute quickly in cold coffee.
Therefore, the process of making ice for coffee is more expensive than that of preparing regular ice. And unfortunately, these charges are passed down to the consumer increasing how much it costs.
2. Cost of coffee beans
It takes twice as many beans to prepare iced coffee as it does to make hot coffee beverages.
While a cup of hot coffee requires 35 cents worth of coffee beans, the beans used to make a cup of iced coffee will cost 62 cents. This drives up the cost of making iced coffee significantly.
This disparity in the price of coffee beans used for iced coffee making becomes more apparent when you consider that you get more hot coffee drinks from a bag of coffee beans than iced coffee drinks.
For this reason, coffee brewers charge much more for a cup of iced coffee than a hot coffee beverage.
3. Coffee brewing time
The time it takes to make iced coffee also contributes to its high cost. This is because it requires the use of cold water, which takes longer to extract coffee flavor and caffeine from coffee beans than hot water.
In fact, coffee beans are steeped for 12 -24 hours during ice coffee making to get the most flavorful coffee concentrate.
And even when espresso shots are used as base ingredients in iced coffee, it still adds to the cost of iced coffee. This is because preparing espresso necessitates the use of an espresso machine which is expensive to purchase.
Pulling espresso shots also consumes a lot of electricity and requires expertise to operate. In this way, the time and effort involved in ice coffee brewing become a major reason it is so costly.
Conclusion
So, in summary, iced coffee is quite expensive compared to other coffee beverages. And this is down to the price of packaging, labor, and coffee-making machinery required to make it. The higher the cost of these things, the more expensive you can expect a cup of iced coffee to get.
But despite these factors, what still makes this beverage expensive is that coffee shops know we need it. Is there anything we can do about that?
Yes. If you learn how to make iced coffee at home, you will save a lot of money, especially in summer.
You only require a good amount of great coffee beans and some cold water. This is enough to make an excellent coffee concentrate. You can also add some ice cubes, milk, and sweetener for a delicious glass of iced coffee.
If you do this, you’ll never have to worry about buying another cup of iced coffee again.
