Coffee: The Cost Of A Cup  By Jesse Emspak AAA  Coffee: Plenty
of us swear by our daily caffeine fix. Coffee has to be one of
the cheapest addictive substances in the world, and as an added
bonus it doesn't give you cancer. At a food cart in New York,
you can get an 8-ounce cup for a dollar or less.  That may
change, though, as some long-term trends will likely push the
price up for consumers. How much is anybody's guess, as it
depends on several factors, only some of which growers can
control.  How the Coffee Market Works  In the countries that
produce coffee, such as Brazil (the single largest), Colombia or
Indonesia, the beans are grown on mountain plantations. The
coffee is packed into 60-kilogram (132-pound) bags and handed
off to someone to transport it to the ports. At this point the
coffee is a greenish bean.  The coffee is taken to the ports and
shipped to the consumer country. The largest consumer is the
U.S., with Europe in second place, but that's the EU taken as a
bloc. The U.S. is number one amo