The long running mystery of ice coffee pricing

Depends what exactly they mean by 'ice (or iced) coffee'.

When I was on holidays in Italy we discovered the 'cafe freddo' almost by accident. (Needing to buy a coffee to use the cafe bathroom, my wife didn't want a hot coffee, and in my limited Italian this was the best I could think to ask for). They made an espresso, and poured it over ice.

Quick. Easy. And the same price (90 cents) as an espresso. In other words, there was no price difference or mystery.

Back home in Australia, an Iced Coffee is a very different beast. There's probably fresh coffee in there ... plus milk, ice-cream, cream, some chocolate syrup on top. It's twice the size of a flat white. On a menu it is always associated with iced chocolates and milkshakes, not hot coffee.

In this context, comparing ice coffee to hot coffee is almost like comparing buffalo wings to buffalo mozzarella. The similarity in name doesn't necessitate similarity in pricing.

Iced coffee or cold-press? There's a difference, though both are served over ice.

Cold-press is actually brewed cold, and it takes hours to have a well-brewed batch. That is a major reason the costs are different—prep time is much longer, and there are risks associated with preparing food in advance.

Iced coffee, real iced coffee (not cold press), is crap. It's hot brewed coffee refrigerated and/or poured over ice. This messes with the composition of the liquid, and generally causes it to become bitter. (Though if it's espresso, the results are different...)

Mystery solved, perhaps?

My favorite coffee shop actually charges less for iced coffee than hot, but: -They brew hot coffee one cup at a time with very high quality coffee -They use an admittedly lower quality coffee for iced so that it tastes stronger. It's still good, but their cost of supply is lower. -They brew iced coffee in batches, so the labor involved in making 40 cups of iced coffee is significantly lower than 40 cups of hot coffee.

Side tangent: It annoys the crap out of me that Starbucks makes it /cheaper/ to get a large iced americano with 4 shots compared to a medium with 4 shots. Obviously a large americano costs them slightly more (bigger cup, more ice), but they should at least be the same price. Absolutely ridiculous that I have to pay more to get it in a smaller cup and have it be less diluted.

I have never noticed much difference between iced coffee and hot coffee, but I am mostly an espresso drinker. In the case of iced espresso beverages, most coffee shops around here (megachain or otherwise) typically add an extra shot of espresso to the iced drinks, presumably to compensate for the melting ice. This adds to the cost, as more coffee is going into the drink.

Now, whether or not a shot of espresso costs a dollar is a whole other issue, but it does make sense. You aren't paying for coldness or the different cup or "seasonal rarity", you're paying for that extra shot at the usual extra shot price.

I guess I shouldn't mention the coffee shops I know that simply refrigerate their hour-old coffee and then put it on ice when someone asks for an iced coffee...

The real mystery is why regular coffee is so cheap in the U.S., compared to say, France or Germany. I think Americans have just come to expect regular coffee to be $2 maximum, and react irrationally when it is any higher. But iced-coffee is a different beast, where market forces work more normally, and so it is priced on par with lattes and other drinks.

To answer the author's closing question (why hasn't anyone lowered the price and advertise it). It's likely because so far there's been room for everyone and noone wants to start a price war on what I assume is a cash cow.

My local coffee shop (Bollo's in Blacksburg, VA) charges the same for iced coffee as they do for a house mug and a small to-go.

In New York and the northeast in general, they usually brew, cool, refrigerate and then ice the coffee.

I bet it has to do with our psychological willingness to pay more for a cold drink on a hot day.