Unperturbed by talk of a Brazilian bean bust, one Middletonian walked into a local restaurant a few days ago and received two cups of coffee for a nickel. While the second cup came only after the counterman noticed the first was filled with buttermilk instead of cream, even one cup for five cents is as rare these days as the animal that snorts over the edges of a Buffalo nickel. Actually, however, the rising cost of coffee appears to be effecting more conversation than boosts in the charge for a cup of the stuff. Most of the restaurants that marked their coffee at a dime are afraid to boost prices any further. Those few who charged a nickel are now fewer. Otherwise, coffee drinkers are faced with nothing but their lone resolution, "If it goes up to 15 cents, I'll stop drinking..."

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