What does a bag of roasted coffee cost to make today?

As of September 2, 2026, the green coffee inside a 12 oz retail bag costs $2.84 at today's C-market print of $3.02/lb — a roaster buys about 0.94 lb of green to end up with 12 oz roasted, because beans lose roughly 15% of their weight in the roaster. With roast gas and about $6.10 of labor, packaging, and overhead, the all-in cost is $8.95, leaving a 36.1% margin on a $14.00 bag. That margin moved up 1.5 points this month — Coffee -6.7%.

$3.02green coffee / lb $8.95all-in / bag 36.1%margin at $14 32%of cost priced by markets

Your beans, your roast loss, your shelf price → your margin, live →

The C-market owns a roaster's margin

Unlike almost any other food product, a bag of specialty coffee has one input that is both dominant and violently repriced: green coffee is roughly 32% of this bag's total cost, and the C-market has moved double-digit percentages in single months on Brazilian weather alone. A roaster who prices bags off last quarter's green cost is quoting a margin that no longer exists — in either direction. That is the specific failure this page exists to prevent: the number above is today's, and it changes when the market does.

Roast loss: the invisible 15%

The 0.94 lb figure matters more than it looks. Water leaves the bean in the roaster, so every pound of green yields roughly 0.85 lb of roasted coffee — meaning the effective green cost per roasted pound is the print divided by 0.85. Roasters who cost their bags on green weight instead of roasted weight understate their true cost by that same 15%, which at today's prices is real money per bag.

Method

The green price is the ICE Coffee "C" futures print, updated continuously on our pipeline; your landed cost adds differentials, freight, and import basis but tracks the change. The 15% roast loss, gas figure, and $6.10 fixed line are editable defaults — the margin card recomputes on your numbers in the browser. Not an invoice forecast, not advice.