Every now and then, someone asks me what kind of coffee I buy, and I tell them.
And then I tell them the price. Usually $15.99 for a one-pound bag of beans.
And they gasp.
I say, "Well, it's Fair Trade ... and it's really good."
And they say, "Oh."
And then I explain that there are lots of products that people in my part of the world buy, not quite realizing that people in another part of the world are sometimes pretty badly exploited so I can have that product.
And coffee is one of those products. And I drink a lot ... A LOT ... of it. So ... several years ago, I decided that when I could afford to buy Fair Trade coffee ... which involves a lot less exploitation of people ... I would. I started with a 1 to 3 ratio, and worked my way up.
But it still costs $15.99 for a one-pound bag of beans.
It's really good, by the way.
Every now and then it goes on sale for $11.99, and when that happens, I shamelessly clear the shelf, so I hardly ever buy it at full price.
But still - it's a lot of money, right? Like, how much is that per cup???
So I kept track over the last couple of weeks. Bobblehead-Domi helped me.
I got 28 cups out of a one-pound bag. And by "cup," I mean good-sized coffee mug. Not giant, not small.
(Freshly ground and French-pressed, by the way.)
(And for the record, a French press is about $15 or less at Canadian Tire.
I'll refrain from pointing out the cost of a drip coffeemaker.
Or a Keurig or Tassimo.)
If you divide those 28 mugs of coffee by the price of the bag ... well, here's what I'm paying.
57 cents for an excellent quality, good-sized, steaming hot mug of coffee.
If I get it on sale - which I usually do - it's 43 cents.
Which, I am confident, is less than anybody is paying for the smallest-sized, nastiest-tasting coffee in any drive-through coffee shop on this continent.
*gasp*
And it's soooo good, too.
Happy Outrage-Free Friday!
