Morning Jolt Gets Less Expensive

NEW YORK -- Coffee prices seem to be coming down from the wild ride they’ve been on since late 2010. With coffee futures dipping 1.7 percent in the past six months, popular brands are beginning to cut their prices.

Even though coffee futures inched up slightly this past week, industry experts do not think it is enough to bring prices back to early 2011 levels. According to CNNMoney, the easing prices coupled with better weather conditions for growing coffee have led some companies to put the brakes on the price hikes caffeine seekers have endured of late.

For example, Kraft decreased the price of its Maxwell House brand by 6 percent earlier this week. The change resulted in about a 20-cent drop per pound of roast or ground coffee, the news outlet reported. That move came on the heels of J.M. Smucker Co. cutting its coffee brands by a similar 6 percent. That price change affected Folgers and Millstone coffee, as well as Dunkin' Donuts coffee, which Smucker is licensed to sell in stores.

These decreases reverse a yearlong trend. In August 2010, Smucker instituted a 10-percent increase, followed in February 2011 with another 10-percent increase and an 11-percent increase in May 2011 on most of its coffee products, CNNMoney said.

Kraft has had a series of its own price hikes since late 2010. In March, it raised prices of select coffee products by 70 cents per pound on ground coffee and 6.25 cents per ounce of instant coffee. Kraft had already raised those prices in December 2010.