The world’s most expensive coffee cup costs 300 euros and is sold in the only country willing to pay something like this: Japan

He price of a cup of coffee It is an excellent socioeconomic indicator. That “1.20 euros” of a coffee with milk in a conventional bar is the measure of measuring with which many Spaniards in recent years have compared the Daily Products Pricebut that rod has long since broke.

The boom of chains like Starbucksspecialty coffee shops and trembling reality of the coffee market has caused the price of this delicious and healthy drink increase dramatically.

But even if we pay more or less depending on the place where we live, there are so exclusive cafes that does not matter where we take it because its price will continue to be crazy. And one of those expensive coffees occurs on the Japanese island of Okinawa.

The price? 315 euros. The cup, not the kilo. And even the most coffee experts do not know if it is worth it.

Coffee that costs a third of the minimum wage

We are talking about asking for a donut of a couple of euros to accompany a cup of coffee of more than 300 euros. It is complicated that many of us imagine something like that, but it is what happens with some coffees such as Nakayama Estate. And, within that it is a barbarity of money for a cup of coffee, I will turn to that xataka meme: it makes sense. Put the quotes you want here.

Okinawa is just at the north limit of the so -called ‘coffee belt’, which makes it one of the most extreme areas where it can be cultivated. We have already told that coffee occurs mostly in what we know as the “coffee belt” and that, although the Climate change It is allowing coffee to develop in areas Like Sicily either Spainit is still a peculiarity that coffee occurs so to the limit of the optimal zone.

In addition, Nakayama is not too high above sea level. To grow coffee, especially the Arabic varietywhich is usually used in the specialty coffee, the altitude to which it is grown must be between 1,000 and 2,000 meters above sea level. In Nakayama, farms are between 150 and 500 meters.

To round the formula, it must be taken into account that they use sustainable practices without pesticides and with Japanese employees who charge higher wages than those that farmers from other coffee producing areas can collect. In summary: they are not the ideal conditions, it is difficult to harvest and the wages are high, which directly impacts the price, but there is more.

Nakayama Café is not only exclusive for the achievement of carrying out such a harvest, but for the low production they get every year. Brazil is the main coffee producer and in 2022 that production was more than 3,100,000 tons. Vietnam is the second, with almost 2,000,000 tons that same year. New Caledonia is one of the most producers weakwith two tons of coffee. Nakayama would not enter the graphics, because its production is 300 kilos a year.

And if we add that very scarce annual production with the factors mentioned above since coffee has distinctive notes thanks, precisely, to that low height crop, we result in a cup that is exceptionally expensive. I would be unable to distinguish a cup of this select coffee from my coffee in Costa Rica every morning, but someone can: James Hoffman.

We have ever talked about him, since he was named better barista in 2007, he has such interesting recipes –I have tried this– like that of a Donut coffee and, in addition, It is coffee toaster. It has, in short, a palate qualified enough to analyze something like a cup that costs more than 300 euros.

To do this, he went to one of the most expensive coffee shops: Shotin one of the most exclusive neighborhoods in London, to try this coffee. There are only special coffees, such as private crops of islands like Kona in Hawaii, Santa Helena Café (one of the most remote islands in the world) coffee Kopi Luwak that is extracted from excrement from an animal and, of course, that of Nakayama. The letter has no prices, and we already know what this usually implies.

Ok, very good, but … is it worth it? According to HoffmannNo. Not quite.

“It is more acid than I expected and has a good texture, a touch of wood and is very fruity,” says the British YouTuber. “The barista has done really well, there is a good barista after this coffee and it is a mature coffee, well -processed, well roasted and well done, but I do not think that its flavor and its price are connected.”

In addition, he adds that he does not think he has distinctive characteristics of other low -altitude coffees that he has tried. And, although this may seem devastating, really, as I said before, it makes sense. Because, as Hoffmann, the price and perception of those 300 euros for a cup of coffee (espresso, in addition, without milk), depends on the value that we give to things, something that is linked to the size of the portfolio.

It occurs with virtually any product whose price is not objective and depends on what we are willing to pay. This Okinawa coffee, better or worse, is like an exclusive wine, fashion brands, chocolate, watches, cars and What can occur to us. Because, obviously, Shot has not cost so much money, but has revalued to the extreme the price of that coffee due to the aura of exclusivity that has to be of the few coffee shops in the world that has those grains in particular.

The truth is that, after writing this, I still escape from my head to pay 315 euros for an espresso and I don’t know how many Bernabéus equivalent. But I know that for the price of that espresso, you can buy three games of Nintendo Switch 2 and you have left over for a coffee from the street end.

Images | James Hoffman, Seislandcoffee

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