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Starbucks pushed an expensive coffee bean from the island where Napoleon was exiled.

Published: 2026-03-18 Author: World Gafei

Last Updated: 2026/03/18, In June, American boutique coffee brand Blue Bottle launched a coffee bean from Yemen. In addition to the flavor, its biggest feature is that a 5-ounce bag of coffee beans costs $65, equivalent to 429 yuan, or $13 per ounce. To this end, Blue Bottle talked about the geopolitics of Yemen from the geographical environment of the coffee growing areas, trying to contribute to this coffee bean.

In June, American boutique coffee brand Blue Bottle launched a coffee bean from Yemen. In addition to flavor, its biggest feature is that it is expensive-a 5-ounce bag of coffee beans costs $65, equivalent to 429 yuan, or $13 per ounce.

To that end, Blue Bottle talks from the geography of coffee-growing areas to the geopolitics of Yemen, trying to tell a good story about the coffee bean in order to dampen people's surprise at the high price. There is also a trend behind this-those seemingly rare and expensive coffee beans have become an important part of the competition between boutique coffee.

It also means that Starbucks needs to join the competition as it increasingly emphasizes the quality of its coffee, opens more high-end selection stores, and wants to make itself boutique.

Recently, Starbucks launched $10-an-ounce St.Helena coffee beans, which will be sold online this month in a roaster store in Seattle.

These are the most expensive coffee beans Starbucks has ever offered. In 2012 and July this year, it sold Geisha Varietal coffee (Rosa) and Rwanda Mahembe, which won the local coffee competition in Rwanda, respectively, but both sold for half the price of St. Helena.

In addition to paying a high price for expensive coffee beans, the courage of Starbucks' cash-strapped big companies is also reflected in its plan to buy a total of 100kg of raw coffee beans, but now St.Helena produces only 60kg a year. After that, the total amount of about 3520 ounces of coffee beans will eventually generate about $28000 in revenue for Starbucks after being roasted and so on.

For Starbucks, this is a very small number, but there is no doubt that it has made enough gimmicks and put on a high-quality posture.

Like Blue Bottle, Starbucks will tell a good story for St. Helena. This helps consumers understand coffee and are more willing to pay for it.

At this point, Starbucks' coffee blog 1912 PIKE launched last year is important and necessary. In addition to the small coffee industry and the production behind the island, which makes it expensive, the geographical environment and human history of the island are also mentioned in the 1912 PIKE article about the coffee beans.

St.Helena is an island with a population of 4500, located between South America and South Africa. The only way to communicate with the outside world is by water, but it takes a five-day voyage from Cape Town, South Africa. This is the rarity of its geographical location. Another striking thing that cannot be copied is that St.Helena was the last stop of Napoleon's exile after the defeat of Waterloo in 1821. In 1840, Napoleon died of illness on the island, and the coffin was transported back to France.

Ann Traumann, a coffee buyer at Starbucks, first came here in early 2015 to make a deal with local coffee farmers.

"We should be patient with what is really good." Ann Traumann said. Of course, the time cost in between is eventually added to the unit price of coffee. The question is, are you willing to pay the bill?