It is said that the best things in life are free, but not coffee, especially if you are traveling on US Air. In the news this week, US Air will be the first airline to charge for coffee and other drinks. The airlines are trying to defray the extremely high cost of fuel these days by charging for other formerly free services. While US Air is the first, I am sure it is just a matter of time before other airlines follow suit.

While many people will balk at first, I believe it is only a matter of time before it becomes the norm. This brings me to the question of how much is too much when it comes to a cup of coffee. How much are you willing to pay? I mean after years of paying less than a dollar for a cup, we think nothing of paying $4 per cup in places like Starbucks.

Vance Rowe, Wrestling and Crime Editor at Bella Online, posted in the coffee forum the question of whether you would pay $15 for a cup of coffee. My response was, “While we say “No Way!” right now, did we ever think we'd be paying $4 and more for a gallon for gas? Just give us a minute to get used to the idea and voila--there we are reaching into our pockets.”

Vance’s question was prompted by a story on Panama Esmeralda Especial Reserva, a rare coffee that was going for $15 per cup (and $130 per pound) and was so coveted that the shop was taking deposits for reservations. Another outrageously priced coffee is Kopi Luwak. What gives this coffee its high price tag is that it is hand picked for you off of the jungle floor after it has also been eaten and excreted by an animal called the common palm civet (think cross between a cat and a raccoon. In fact they are also known as toddy cats). Can you believe that people would pay at all, let alone some outrageous amount, for the privilege of drinking something that was predigested and excreted from an animal?

I really wonder how far we will go to keep something like coffee in our lives. So I ask you—Is there a hundred dollar cup of coffee in your future? Never say never.