Like his cappuccinos, Taniel Vaaderpass, 33, isn't bitter. His usually profitable company, OA Coffee, one of Estonia's biggest bean roasting companies, may have posted a loss for the first time last year, and is set to do so again this year, but he remains sanguine as he sits on the terrace of the cafe he also owns on a cobbled street in old town Tallinn, the country's capital.
The central causes of his misfortune is a 240% increase in the price of unroasted coffee beans and a 20% surge in the cost of the gas he uses to roast them.
This is the reality of living in Europe's inflation hotspot.
The latest figures reveal that Estonia has an annual inflation rate of an astonishing 23.2% - the highest in the eurozone, vastly outpacing the average of 8.9%.
Vaaderpass is inevitably part of the cycle. He has raised his price to supermarkets by 25% over the past eight months and fears he will have to cut costs to get "back on track".
But he is not on the streets calling for the government's downfall. No Estonians are. Indeed the latest polling has the Reform party, the largest in the ruling coalition, at 34.4% of the vote, with their conservative rivals at 21.3% only six months before national elections.
This story is from the August 20, 2022 edition of The Guardian.
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This story is from the August 20, 2022 edition of The Guardian.
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