# €3 for a cup of coffee in Galway



## DeclanP (27 Jun 2008)

Was in Galway during the week and had lunch, after which I ordered a cup of coffee. Was shocked when charged €3 for the coffee which came in a relatively small cup.

This is shocking. Is it any wonder that the Brits and Americans are staying away? The lunch was dear enough but the price of coffee took the biscuit. For the record, this was a small upstairs restaurant on Quay Street — and not the G Hotel or anything like that.

Maybe I am overreacting but I thought that this was outrageous and let the staff know. All they said was that they were just the employees and had nothing to do with fixing the prices. Blah de blah


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## Joe1234 (27 Jun 2008)

Did you not ask the price of the coffee before ordering it?


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## Joe1234 (27 Jun 2008)

Just realised this post in in the motoring forum.  It should be moved to LOS.


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## eileen alana (27 Jun 2008)

Tis shocking alright, don't go there again.


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## DeclanP (27 Jun 2008)

Joe1234 said:


> Did you not ask the price of the coffee before ordering it?



Amm, no! Like, I don't ask the price of a pint when I go into a pub. Maybe should have checked off the menu but I still didn't expect it to be €3, which is nearly the price of a pint! Still think it is astronomical for a coffee.


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## DrMoriarty (27 Jun 2008)

Joe1234 said:


> Just realised this post in in the motoring forum. It should be moved to LOS.


Indeed.


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## ClubMan (27 Jun 2008)

DeclanP said:


> Amm, no! Like, I don't ask the price of a pint when I go into a pub. Maybe should have checked off the menu but I still didn't expect it to be €3, which is nearly the price of a pint! Still think it is astronomical for a coffee.


So you don't check price lists which, by law, must be on display, you don't complain at the time but you post moaning about it after the fact on the internet?


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## dewdrop (27 Jun 2008)

I must say that if i were going for a cup of coffee I would not check price beforehand but in future i think i will.


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## ClubMan (27 Jun 2008)

The price list must be on prominent display by law. In many places each table also has an individual menu/price list. If some people just make a purchase and leave the price to chance then that's their own problem not the outlet's. 

By the way €3 for a coffee would not be totally unknown in _Dublin_.


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## Joe1234 (27 Jun 2008)

DeclanP said:


> Amm, no! Like, I don't ask the price of a pint when I go into a pub.



Well I for one think you should have either asked or looked at the menu.  Presumably you saw a menu when you ordered lunch


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## Protocol (28 Jun 2008)

Some tea/coffee prices that I am aware of:

SLIGO, Cafe Victor: tea = 1.40

GALWAY, E Brun pub on Dominick street: tea = 1.50, coffee = 2.00

I'd say plenty of places charge more than 2.00 for coffee, so 3.00 is not unbelievable.


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## car (28 Jun 2008)

Maybe start a website called www.irishcoffeeprices.com should soon alert our caffeine imbibing brethren to whats what in the world of coffee prices on our little isle.


hey, caffeine.  I thought it was supposed to be I before E except after C.   what in the name of blue blazes?  no wonder it costs so much, its a spelling anomoly.


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## ClubMan (28 Jun 2008)

car said:


> hey, caffeine.  I thought it was supposed to be I before E except after C.   what in the name of blue blazes?


Yeah - that's w*ei*rd!


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## tallpaul (29 Jun 2008)

car said:


> hey, caffeine. I thought it was supposed to be I before E except after C. what in the name of blue blazes? no wonder it costs so much, its a spelling anomoly.


 
And don't tell the n*ei*ghbours...


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## gipimann (29 Jun 2008)

Or they'll start to ring their sl*ei*ghbells......


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## rmelly (29 Jun 2008)

before anyone else jumps in: http://www.morewords.com/contains/ei/


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## rmelly (29 Jun 2008)

uiop said:


> eh then how did the cliched notion of 'i before e except after c' come about since its been proven wrong


 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_before_E_except_after_C




> The price of coffee seems kind of complicated from google. The original growers seem to get the least cut along the supply chain.


 
This is the same for most forms of agriculture e.g. wine makers, dairy farmers, beef farmers - it's just different people taking the cuts.


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## Purple (29 Jun 2008)

Joe1234 said:


> Well I for one think you should have either asked or looked at the menu.  Presumably you saw a menu when you ordered lunch


Do/would you check the price of the coffee before you order it after a meal?
I know I don't.


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## Joe1234 (29 Jun 2008)

Purple said:


> Do/would you check the price of the coffee before you order it after a meal?
> I know I don't.



Well I'm just back from a meal, and I did check the price of the coffee.  An ordinary coffee was €2.50, while the irish/brandy coffee's etc, were €4.95.  Desserts ranged from €5.95 to about €8.50.

If I'm out for lunch, I would have 3  or 4 places that I would go to, and know that the coffee there is between €2 and €2.50. I tend not to check regularly because I imagine that the price is the same as it was a few days previously.

If I went somewhere new, and didn't check the price before ordering, then I would not feel able to complain, if I was charged €3.


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## Hillsalt (29 Jun 2008)

I had a coffee with a friend in *Blu* on Shop Street in Galway during the week which cost €1.70 each. I thought she made a mistake but I double checked the menu and it was corrrect. 

Blu is about 50 halfway between Brown homas and Easons, and no, i don't own the place. If I did, I'd charge more for coffee


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## rmelly (30 Jun 2008)

This thread's all very well, but we must remember that drinking coffee is not everyone's cup of tea.


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## shnaek (1 Jul 2008)

Hillsalt said:


> I had a coffee with a friend in *Blu* on Shop Street in Galway during the week which cost €1.70 each. I thought she made a mistake but I double checked the menu and it was corrrect.
> 
> Blu is about 50 halfway between Brown homas and Easons, and no, i don't own the place. If I did, I'd charge more for coffee



They are sound in there alright. I got a coffee in there one day and dropped it - my own fault - but they still gave me another coffee free of charge.


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## Protocol (1 Jul 2008)

Hillsalt,

I'm surprised people would think 1.70 is a mistake.  I think it's a fair price.  Not dear, but not cheap either.


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## ClubMan (1 Jul 2008)

Depends on what exactly it was. For example the following generally involve increasing amounts of labour to produce: cup of instant coffee, cup from a large pot of filtered coffee, _French _press/cafetiere of coffee, espresso, americano,  latte/cappuccino etc., other fancier espresso based drinks such as mocha, iced coffee etc. etc.


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## wavejumper (1 Jul 2008)

coffee contains substantial amounts of the chemical acrylamide which is currently being studied as a likely carcinogeic substance.


"COFFEE is responsible for as much as a third of daily consumption of the cancer-causing chemical acrylamide, research by the United Nations has found."

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article788739.ece

stick to tea. chips and crisps contain even more of it.


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## ClubMan (1 Jul 2008)

uiop said:


> I thought most of the coffee in your average coffee shop/cafe was done by machines rather than human labor which basically hands it over ?


Have you ever seen a barista making an espresso (or espresso based drink) using a _Gaggia _or the like? There *IS *manual labour involved. A good barista might fool you into thinking otherwise.  If you mean one of those push button machines that some places have then my sympathies...


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## ClubMan (1 Jul 2008)

wavejumper said:


> coffee contains substantial amounts of the chemical acrylamide which is currently being studied as a likely carcinogeic substance.


"Likely"? Says who exactly?


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## ClubMan (2 Jul 2008)

Try _Google _for any term that you didn't understand.

I would never pay the guts of a fiver for a coffee by the way. Well - unless it was this perhaps.


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## Purple (2 Jul 2008)

ClubMan said:


> Well - unless it was this perhaps.


I tried it; Brown Thomas (ironically) was selling it a few Christmases back. It tasted strange, not crap but not coffee.


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## Raskolnikov (2 Jul 2008)

I don't see the fuss behind a €3 coffee. I mean, if you're going to go in somewhere, take up space and be waited on, then it's naive not to expect to pay for the privilege.

If you don't want to pay the €3 for the coffee and waiting service, then there are plenty of advertised places that will do €1 takeout coffee.


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## shnaek (2 Jul 2008)

Raskolnikov said:


> if you're going to go in somewhere, take up space



I've noticed the way people are taking up space in restaurants, pubs and cafes alright. Those lousy space-taker-uppers will get their comeuppance!


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## wavejumper (4 Jul 2008)

ClubMan said:


> "Likely"? Says who exactly?



if you had read the article I linked you would have noticed:

"The new research has been carried out jointly by two UN agencies — the World Health Organisation and the Food and Agriculture Organisation. It uses data from 17 countries, including Britain, to build up a picture of the amount of acrylamide consumed by people with a range of eating habits."

The US FDA reports that it causes cancer in the animals it was tested on and it it is carrying further studies:

[broken link removed]

The FSAI also highlights simila concerns

[broken link removed]

I'm suprised you've never heard of this.


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## ClubMan (4 Jul 2008)

wavejumper said:


> if you had read the article I linked you would have noticed:
> 
> "The new research has been carried out jointly by two UN agencies — the World Health Organisation and the Food and Agriculture Organisation. It uses data from 17 countries, including Britain, to build up a picture of the amount of acrylamide consumed by people with a range of eating habits."
> 
> ...


Yes - I did read this:


> FDA has not yet determined the exact public health impact,  if any, of acrylamide from the much lower levels found in foods.


and contradictory comments like this:


> Acrylamide is a cancer-causing substance in animals, regarded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as a probable human carcinogen, although epidemiological studies in humans have not shown a relationship between exposure to acrylamide and increased cancer rate. It is also genotoxic (interacts with DNA) and it causes damage to the nervous system (neurotoxicity).


The jury is out. In fact the court might not even be sitting.


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## ubiquitous (4 Jul 2008)

wavejumper said:


> coffee contains substantial amounts of the chemical acrylamide which is currently being studied as a likely carcinogeic substance.
> 
> 
> "COFFEE is responsible for as much as a third of daily consumption of the cancer-causing chemical acrylamide, research by the United Nations has found."
> ...



I can't help thinking that this is like the "mobile phones cause cancer" scares. If it were true, we would have seen exponential increases in Irish cancer cases (allowing for better detection rates) over the past 20 years in line with Irish coffee consumption trends over that period. These exponential increases have not happened therefore the theory should be regarded with suspicion.


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## ClubMan (4 Jul 2008)

I finally got around to reading this book recently so have an idea how statistics (including unrepresentative or non scientific samples) can take on a life of their own once they get published and propagated in reports, press releases, newspapers etc.


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## ninsaga (4 Jul 2008)

Where did it all go wrong anyways... are some people to sophisticated to drink tea these days..... is drinking tea uncool or something..... whats with the Americano;s, latte's, frappachino........

ninsaga (totally uncool person - anticool and about to create a whole new subculture where is it really cool to not be cool!)


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## Purple (4 Jul 2008)

I don’t place much value on statistics; 82% of them are just made up.


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## ClubMan (4 Jul 2008)

ninsaga said:


> Where did it all go wrong anyways... are some people to sophisticated to drink tea these days..... is drinking tea uncool or something..... whats with the Americano;s, latte's, frappachino........
> 
> ninsaga (totally uncool person - anticool and about to create a whole new subculture where is it really cool to not be cool!)


Why do you assume that those who prefer coffee think themselves more sophisticated than those poor plebs who prefer tea?


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## ninsaga (4 Jul 2008)

..because we're poor plebs perhaps


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## ClubMan (4 Jul 2008)

ninsaga said:


> ..because we're poor plebs perhaps


Coffee drinkers would be much more alert to my facetiously patronising joke.


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## wavejumper (7 Jul 2008)

I'm sorry but here you have recommendations from the WHO, the FAO, the American FDA and your own FSAI to watch the intake of products that contain acrylamide, a known carcinogen and neurotoxyn.  It is not disputed that acrylamide is bad for human beings, it is under scrutiny if the amounts found in food are enough to cause cause damage.   I really don't think you are in a position to dismiss this as non-scientific or as a "scare story".   It is a warning, and considering that crisps,chips and now coffee are basic foodstuff over here, it seems to me a valid warning.


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## Seagull (7 Jul 2008)

I think you'll find you have a very limited diet if you read all the stories about sources of carcinogens, and try to eradicate them all.


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## Raskolnikov (9 Jul 2008)

shnaek said:


> I've noticed the way people are taking up space in restaurants, pubs and cafes alright. Those lousy space-taker-uppers will get their comeuppance!




The point I was making was that rent, heating, insurance, waiters, cleaners, etc do not come cheaply. Space, and the other things I mentioned cost money. If you're going to sit in a cafe, these things will inevitably be priced into the coffee.


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