I hope you were able to take advantage of Ben and Jerry’s Free Cone Day today, but if you weren’t, I have another deal to let you know about. It’s not an offer from me—I’m just passing along the information.

I have mentioned before that world coffee prices are going up—way up. As of today, green coffee prices are up over 100% from a year ago. In other words, prices have more than doubled in that time. The big coffee companies, like Starbucks and Folgers, have raised their prices several times in the last year. Many of the local roasters have raised their roasted bean prices too. Some have shifted from selling 16oz bags to selling 12oz bags for the same price, instantly raising the price per pound by 33% (some are even selling half-pound bags for nearly the same price!).

Therefore, I was surprised today when I stopped in at the Spunky Monkey café (that’s right, the super funky Spunky Monkey) and found that they were selling organic and fair trade coffees (which generally cost more to begin with) for $11 per pound. I haven’t seen full 1-lb bags of coffee in other local shops for a couple months, certainly not for $11.

There were three coffees available, all roasted yesterday: a fair trade/organic coffee from Peru, a fair trade/organic from Ethiopia (Sidama) and an organic coffee from Brazil. At this price, the coffees are as good a deal as you will find from a local roaster.

When I asked the owner how he could offer such a deal, he admitted he was probably going to have to raise prices soon. So if you are looking for a great deal on some local fresh-roasted coffee, you should stop in at the Spunky Monkey to get some before he does.

Not sure how long this will last