You must be joe-king.
The Big Apple’s most expensive cup of coffee is being brewed by a UK company in the heart of Manhattan — but opinions are far from blended on whether the caffeine is worth the pricetag.
WatchHouse is hawking its 8-oz cup of La Negrita pourover at a jaw-dropping $28, a figure they justify based on the years-long process it takes to get the beanwater in front of their coffee-obsessed customers.
Time Out New York called the coffee drink — which comes on a platter alongside a green tea palate cleanser — a “$28 investment poured in a glass vessel.”
La Negrita is the priciest cup on the shop’s Rarities pourover menu, which includes five others ranging from $14 to $28, and even briefly peddled a $58 limited edition option.
At the time, the UK-based shop was hawking as many as 400 cups per month across its two Manhattan locations.
At that price, a WatchHouse barista making $18.92 per hour would need to spend 90 minutes crafting La Negritas before they could afford their own — but the intensive labor it takes to make each cup is exactly what makes it close so much.
“This takes quite a bit of equipment and a lot of labor, and also a strong understanding of science and what’s happening during fermentation to get the profile that you want,” explained coffee lead Sachi Patel.
The La Negrita drink is produced from the “rare and so difficult to produce” Gesha bean, which takes up to five years before it can be plucked and shipped to a UK roastery.
“After the coffee is roasted, our senior coffee team in the UK will do quite a bit of recipe testing to find out the best water temperature and brewing method to brew the coffee at and then that will be communicated with all of head baristas at each location, who will make sure that the coffee is tasting the way we want it to,” said Patel, adding that the perfected beans are then finally fermented for 36 hours before being bottled for preservation.
The lengthy history is communicated to the customer during service, much like at a wine tasting — which could be an integral part of the price.
The Post conducted a blind taste test with New Yorkers on the street in which they were asked to guess the price.
Most loved the taste, but were appalled to learn the $28 price tag.
“That’s pretty heinous,” Graham O’Donnell said, even though he admitted the coffee was delicious.
Similarly, Jared Hunter gawked at the cost, saying, “At $28, I’m going to see my Bodega man, put some weight at the bottom. We’d just be chilling and then I’d buy another cup.”
Mohammad Ishmail estimates he hawks about 500 cups of $2 coffee at his breakfast cart just around the corner from WatchHouse’s 5th Avenue location, describing his clientele as mostly construction and blue-collar workers.
“Coffee is coffee. That’s what matters. At 5 o’clock in the morning, I have one and that’s good for me,” said Ishmail, who has been running his truck since 2010.
WatchHouse’s Rarities line certainly has a loyal cult following; however, with coffee lovers like Sarah Allmon, who emphasized the experience wasn’t for the average Dunkin’ enthusiast.
“This is their bread and butter. They’re willing to go the extra mile to get a really good pour-over. I think if you’re someone that’s really chasing that specialty coffee or seeing what is the unique option out there, I think that the rarities would definitely pull your interest,” Allmon, 31, of the Upper East Side said, rating WatchHouse as one of the top 5 of the nearly 100 coffee shops she’s ever visited in the Big Apple.
Harrison Huang — who described himself as a “really big coffee person” — agreed, telling The Post he stopped by WatchHouse as part of a self-conducted tour of several other high-end coffee shops during his trip to the Big Apple.
“For me, the most interesting part is to try different coffee beans and how the coffee shop is using their technique to kind of display — that’s a fun way to look at it, too,” explained Harrison Huang, 31, of Los Angeles, who was sipping on a $14 Pepe Jijon, his second cup of the his trip to WatchHouse after trying a $23 Abu Lot.
“I’m not always looking at the coffee bean, but also the machine they’re using and how they are approaching this plane … the whole environment is what I’m looking for.”
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