Hipsters, vegan fads jack up food prices

NEW YORK • Hipsters have been blamed for polarizing trends from jeans to facial hair. Now they’re making it more expensive to enjoy breakfast, at least stateside.

Blame it on unicorn toast, whose rapid spike in popularity has contributed to a surge in cream cheese prices. There are also fads like avocado toast and exotic coffee drinks that have driven up costs for avocados and vanilla beans. Even cauliflower, a staple in vegan diets favoured by some hipsters, is at a record high.

Unicorn toast features bread topped with cream cheese and various food colours or super-food powders swirled in. Unfortunately, it isn’t the cheapest to recreate as cream cheese prices have risen 31 per cent in the U.S. over the past year.

It’s even worse with avocados, where a 10-kilogram box of Hass avocados from the state of Michoacan, Mexico’s biggest producer, now costs more than double what it was a year earlier.

Cauliflower’s rise from vegetable afterthought to darling of the vegan and gluten-free diet has already contributed to a spike in Canada’s consumer prices.

In the U.S., prices have tripled in a little more than a year, thanks in no small part to trendy recipes like cauliflower rice and cauliflower crust pizza. The vegetable’s price has come down from its peak, but is still higher than the historical average.

Vanilla’s price rise might be better laid at the feet of corporate America, but hipsters can’t be absolved entirely. Starbucks Corp.’s attempt to tap into the seemingly bottomless appetite for all things unicorn — Frappuccino anyone? — has sent the cost of the bean within striking distance of a record.

And Starbucks itself is profiting near all-time highs. When the company released earnings late last week, it singled out the success of its Unicorn Frappuccino.