$2.54 for a Tall Drip Coffee? Are You Kidding Me?

Perhaps I have just have had my head in the clouds, but when does a tall drip cost $2.54? Most of the time I come into Cafe Ladro in Bothell to get my double short Americano and do some early morning web work, blogs, SEO and other marketing stuff. I usually spend about $4 with tip for my Americano, which is a bit high I think, especially since it is just hot water and coffee grounds. Today I thought I would got the economy route and order a tall drip (with no room).

The beautiful barista (why hasn’t someone opened a coffee-shop called Beautiful Baristas? That is a great name!), double cupped me, and pour the coffee into the cup and put it on the counter. Very little effort. I had 2 dollars out and ready to give some change if needed. The order came to $2.45. TWO FORTY FIVE? I couldn’t believe it. Now to be fair, Cafe Ladro has pretty good coffee. I am no coffee connoisseur so I cannot really speak about how good coffee really is. It wakes me up, thats really all I care about. 

I don’t know, this just pissed me off for some reason. I know that Starbucks charges $2 or so for their coffee, which is good average coffee. I guess my issue with this is that we pay a premium for lattes and other hot drinks because of the effort and products that are involved. DRIP COFFEE IS JUST HOT WATER FILTERED THROUGH COFFEE GROUNDS… that’s it. No effort, set it and forget it. Uhhhhg. This bugs me. Can someone please tell me a place where I can go to get a good (not AWESOME just GOOD) cup of coffee for under 2 bucks in Bothell? PLEASE?