As unfortunate of a catalyst as this is, I (Greg) am still grateful for something to get me back into writing. I’ve been wanting to for years. When I first started Bridge City and it was nothing more than an idea fueled by youthful enthusiasm, that I wish I still had by the way, I committed to building it on  authenticity. How I could do that at the time was by sharing posts in the moment wherever we were in any process - looking for a physical shop location, trying to find investment for opening a shop, failing a lot, doing pop-up events, failing more, getting our first roaster, etc. I want to start communicating that way again and now is as good a time as ever. I’ll save recapping the last years for other blogs/journals/letters, whatever we end up calling these.

what’s happening?

Pertinent to now is the global coffee crisis we’re in. You can learn more from the articles below and doing more of your own research. There is a ton of content out there right now. The short of it is that green coffee prices have reached record highs and doubled in a very short span of time. This is something that everyone around the globe involved with coffee in any way is experiencing. It has already had a huge impact on coffee roasters and shops stateside and that will only continue. With costs doubling, roasters and shops will have to make shifts in pricing, sourcing, offerings, etc. to stay ahead of the game and keep their doors open. Some have had to close already and if the current trends continue that will happen even more.

how did it happen?

The record prices of green coffee are primarily a result of massive crop failures in the worlds largest coffee producing countries, Brazil and Vietnam. These crop failures are largely due to drastic weather shifts from climate change. But unfortunately it’s not just that simple. There are also geopolitical situations contributing to supply chain disruptions for fertilizers and other supplies from the war between Russia and Ukraine and shipping and logistics disruptions caused by the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas. Not to mention newly enacted tariffs by our own country. 

All this has been a reminder to me how amazingly, wonderfully, and at times frustratingly complex coffee is. There are months and years that go into it before you purchase a cup or bag of coffee at any shop. By the way, if you weren’t aware, which I wasn’t before entering into this industry, coffee only grows in very specific places around the globe known as the coffee belt. You can learn more about that here and here. Outside of Hawaii, and some extremely small and expensive to cultivate places, it cannot grow anywhere in the US. 

where does that leave us now?

As of now, we were thankfully able to secure a sizable amount of coffee before prices hit their high. Even with that, however, our expenses have still gone up significantly. Our cost for one of our most popular coffees, Nostalgia, spiked more than 50%. Are we going to raise our prices that much? While from a formulaic outlook on paper that would be nice, it would not run true to how we’ve always done things. Though we do have to raise prices a bit, it is nowhere near the percentage our costs have gone up. We’re doing our best to pass as little of that along to you all and to absorb as much of those costs as possible while also maintaining a steady, healthy ship that stays afloat for a long time to come.

I honestly don’t know what the coming months will look like this year and into next. There is much uncertainty - will prices go up or down, will global instability increase or level out, will the crop shortages bounce back or fail again, and how will all this going on for longer impact us? We’re having to do some serious soul searching and strategizing about how to keep Bridge City alive and healthy for decades to come. We have no clue yet, but that could even look like having to close one of our shops to consolidate resources. Hopefully it doesn’t come to that and we’re not planning to, but that’s how serious this is and what we’re having to think through.

thank you

Thank you for taking the time to read this! If you have any other questions or things you’d like to talk through related to any of the above, please reach out to info@bridgecity.coffee and we’ll connect you with the right person on our team. As mentioned above, we’ll be sending more communication out soon. If you’d like to stay in the loop for that sign up here.

more related reading

https://perfectdailygrind.com/2025/02/how-high-could-coffee-prices-go/

https://perfectdailygrind.com/2025/02/coffee-prices-record-highs-roasters/

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/why-are-coffee-prices-so-high-inflation/