This quote further in the article captures the reason why someone might spend more. Producing good coffee is actually more expensive than the market would lead you to believe. For some people drinking good coffee is exactly like experiencing a fine wine.
Useful references: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wine_fraud
There's a little roaster in St Lawrence Market where I go and I pickup random bags of whatever coffees for fun, and they are extremely different.
Wine I've never been able to discern. I don't think coffee is in the same league at all.
That said the best coffee near me is in the little market and it's both cheaper and vastly better than star bucks, I go there after Chess Club on a Saturday and review the games I just played, it's so good I would pay £5 (~$7.5) for that one cup a week because it's an experience not the caffeine, the rest of the time it's LIDL's Columbian instant (which is a damn fine instant).
I would phrase it differently.
Americans have become conditioned to accept high prices for drinks. For lots of reasons, but mostly because they are real money makers in almost every place that sells any sort of drink.
I mean, it costs up to $6 for a bottle of kombucha, and I know people who go through a couple of those a day. The next logical step is a $20 coffee.
Meanwhile in Europe you can get a good espresso for a euro.
In Paris you're not spending one euro on espresso typically. It's going to be closer to 2.50 to 3 euros. Adjust that to dollars, you get more like $3 to $3.70, adjust for income differences you get $5 to $6 (US incomes are far higher than French incomes, and especially if we're comparing eg NYC vs Paris).
https://francetravelplanner.com/go/paris/shop/costs.html
Americans have not been conditioned to accept high prices for drinks. When was the last time you wandered through Walmart's beverages section? Their grocery section has half an aisle for inexpensive coffee and tea products, and then another half aisle for inexpensive soda products. As another example, cases of water at Walmart go for $4 for a brand label pack of 24 to 32 500ml bottles, or $0.13 to $0.17 per unit. If anything, most Americans are conditioned to expect to pay very cheap prices for purchased beverages. That's why Starbucks is considered expensive to the average person.
A small group of high income Americans find it acceptable to spend what is a trivial sum for them, on such product experiences.
The notion that many Americans are spending $15-$20 on daily beverages, is laughable. The median income is $30,000. You want me to believe a lot of people are spending $7,000 annually on beverages? Yeah right.
It's equivalent to saying: in the US you can buy a vast array of great wines for $10 to $20, while in France people are paying $140 for wine.
Sure, some people in France are. It'd be false to pretend a large number of people in France are doing that regularly. Few Americans are actually spending outsized sums of money on beverages.
In Albania, it is the 0.80 for a medium-good espresso (Lavazza or Illy), and 1.20 to 1.50 for a cappuccino.
In Barcelona, a glass of wine varied between 2.5. and 3 euros. I never paid more than that. In the US? 12-15 (In NYC at least).
Also, in NYC, you can't buy a bottle of water for $1, in most places, while in supermarkets in Spain was about 0.50 or 0.60
So, yeah, Americans in general pay twice as much for beverages.
There are places where things are even cheaper (especially in Souther Italy), where 3 euros will get you a whole bottle of wine.
While NYC is expensive, is it not much more than either San Francisco or Boston. (maybe a 5% difference, but not 2x).
Just saying
Consumer Prices in San Francisco, CA are 1.16% lower than in New York, Consumer Prices in Boston, MA are 12.87% lower than in New York, NY
A common assumption that americans get wrong: this isn't the case. (Taxes might affect things a bit, but that doesn't take into account the healthcare and retirement situation.)
The mythical 1-euro coffee persists due to cultural reasons. But also due to very depressed purchasing power in places in Greece, Italy etc
Go to any capital or premium tourist location, and u too will discover the pleasures of 5euro coffee.
Even if this is still true, you're talking about different things than what most Americans purchase. Very few Americans purchase the single shot of espresso, but last I checked Starbucks has it for ~$1.50.
What many Americans consider coffee is really a milkshake flavored with a couple of shots of espresso. Then there is the size issue. If I walked into a cafe in Europe and wanted a grande sized latte it would end up being very similar in price to Starbucks (2 espresso shots and basically a glass of milk).
I haven't been to Starbucks recently, so I can't comment on their products.
They charge extra for milk, as black coffee is typically drunk as a side dish to iconic pasteis.
https://media-cdn.tripadvisor.com/media/photo-s/08/da/d6/7b/...