Timflation? The price of your coffee is going up at Tim Hortons

The price of your morning cup of coffee is about to go up slightly, Tim Hortons said on Monday.

The company said it was its first price hike for coffee in three years, citing pressures from inflation.

“Our approach to pricing in our restaurants does not reflect any single event, but rather is designed to stay roughly in line with inflation over time,” a spokesperson for the coffee chain told Global News in a statement.

The long-term focus of the company is “maintaining great value and everyday low prices,” the spokesperson added.

On average, the price increase is going to be about three cents per cup, the company said.

Tim Hortons said this represents a 1.5 per cent increase in the price of its coffee, while cumulative inflation over the same three-year period has been roughly seven per cent.

Citing data from MarketWatch, the company said the price of coffee has more than doubled, from US$1.58 per pound to US$3.90 per pound. In this context, the company said a three-cent increase in the price of a cup of coffee was “more than reasonable.”

Get breaking National news

For news impacting Canada and around the world, sign up for breaking news alerts delivered directly to you when they happen.

The move comes as Canadians have been paying more for coffee broadly over recent years.

Overall grocery prices in Canada have continued to climb since the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2022, the country saw its largest annual increase in food prices (9.8 per cent) in decades, . While the rate slowed in 2023 (7.8 per cent) and 2024 (2.2 per cent), food prices remain higher than they were before the pandemic.

In August, Canadians paid around 28 per cent more for coffee at the grocery store than they did during the same month in 2024, a recent Statistics Canada report said.

The report cited “unfavourable weather conditions” in countries that grow coffee. This includes Colombia, which accounts for a quarter of all of Canada’s coffee bean imports.

While most of Canada’s beans come from elsewhere, roasted coffee comes to Canada largely from the U.S. The Trump administration’s tariffs on Brazil have meant higher coffee prices in the United States, which trickled over into Canada, Statistics Canada said.