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Or sign-in if you have an account.Data from Technomic, a food-service industry research and consulting firm, show that the occasional crazy splurge on a coffee isn’t that far-fetched for many. Photo by Margaryta Basarab/Getty ImagesA luxury chain setting up shops across Manhattan is betting customers from Los Angeles to Chicago will be willing to pay US$32 for an eight-ounce cup of coffee.Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada.Exclusive articles from Barbara Shecter, Joe O'Connor, Gabriel Friedman, and others.Daily content from Financial Times, the world's leading global business publication.Unlimited online access to read articles from Financial Post, National Post and 15 news sites across Canada with one account.National Post ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition to view on any device, share and comment on.Daily puzzles, including the New York Times Crossword.Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada.Exclusive articles from Barbara Shecter, Joe O'Connor, Gabriel Friedman and others.Daily content from Financial Times, the world's leading global business publication.Unlimited online access to read articles from Financial Post, National Post and 15 news sites across Canada with one account.National Post ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition to view on any device, share and comment on.Daily puzzles, including the New York Times Crossword.Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience.Access articles from across Canada with one account.Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments.Enjoy additional articles per month.Get email updates from your favourite authors.Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience.Access articles from across Canada with one accountShare your thoughts and join the conversation in the commentsEnjoy additional articles per monthGet email updates from your favourite authorsSign In or Create an AccountorLondon-based WatchHouse, which expanded to a fourth location in Manhattan this week, plans to open a store next year in Los Angeles and is scouting for spots in cities including Austin, Chicago and Miami, according to a person familiar with the plans. A fifth Manhattan shop will debut in NoMad in September and another is under construction in the Brookfield Place complex in the Battery Park City neighbourhood.The Bambito Estate, at US$32, is the most expensive item on the menu at its newest location in midtown Manhattan.Breaking business news, incisive views, must-reads and market signals. Weekdays by 9 a.m.By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc.A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder.The next issue of Posthaste will soon be in your inbox.We encountered an issue signing you up. Please try again“It’s kinda insane, I know,” said barista Joseph Peachey, 27, as he prepared a Bambito Estate. It’s steeped from beans from a family farm in western Panama and served with a side of cold-brewed green tea that is to be sipped as a palate cleanser.WatchHouse got its start in 2014 when Roland Horne, the founder and chief executive, converted a 19th century building on Bermondsey Street in London into a cafe. It took its name from the structure, a watch house that once sheltered guards who looked after a nearby church.The company’s backers include HighPost Capital, an investment firm cofounded by Mark Bezos, the younger brother of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. The chain so far has stores in London, New York, the United Arab Emirates and Bath, England. The Bambito Estate coffee comes with a palate cleanser.WatchHouse’s menu includes budget-friendly options, with a straight black coffee priced at US$4. As the company says on its website, the intention is to welcome “the connoisseur and the casually curious in equal measure.”But what about that US$32 cup? Coffee aficionados have historically demonstrated tolerance for elevated prices, said Emily Murawski, research and insights manager at Datassential, a market-research firm in Chicago. That’s especially true when there’s a big jump in quality, Murawski added.In other words, if people are happy with the coffee they make at home, they’ll have that. If they go out, they’ll pay up — but that coffee had better be really good.One reviewer, Duncan Cock Foster, 31, cofounder of shuttered NFT marketplace Nifty Gateway, said he ordered a US$22 Franceschi from the Rarities line at the store on Park Avenue South.The fancy presentation — the tray, palate cleanser, serving glass — fell flat because he found the end result underwhelming, he said. “It tasted exactly like the coffee that gets brewed in a Mr. Coffee.”But Cock Foster said other WatchHouse offerings are above average. And he’s not against paying over US$20 for a cup that amazes, he said. “If you really are getting an exceptional product, then I think it can be justified.” WatchHouse employees at work in MidtownData from Technomic, a food-service industry research and consulting firm, show that the occasional crazy splurge on a coffee isn’t that far-fetched for many. “While a US$30 coffee may be out of reach for most situations, special occasions know few bounds when it comes to price,” said Robert Byrne, the firm’s senior director of consumer research.At least one patron ordered a Bambito Estate on opening day at the Midtown location on Tuesday, according to employees there. Like others in the Rarities line, which are sourced from small producers in Colombia and Panama, it retails for more than a large cheese pizza because the beans are so limited in supply, expensive to cultivate and labour-intensive to prepare, said Isaac V. Morales, assistant house manager at the store.WatchHouse’s beans are particularly “well selected” from farmers with a commitment to picking the fruit at the ideal level of ripeness, Morales said. Buyers of this type of bean will pay top dollar for the traceability to individual suppliers and farms, just as high-end vintners do with grapes.Each Rarities coffee is produced as a pour-over, with a barista slowly delivering hot water to grounds in a filter. Instead of using pressure to extract the liquid, this is a gentle method that reduces bitterness and brings out flavours that are more fruit-forward, softer and brighter, said barista Jay Park, 22.An order takes 7 to 10 minutes to prepare. The outcome should be sipped in small amounts as it cools, Park said.It’s meant to be a special experience, he said. “We’re trying to create something more than, ‘I just want caffeine.’”—With assistance from Ilena Peng. 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