Casey McKeel wanted to make a statement with her Greenmount Avenue roastery.

The Thread Coffee owner paid farmers above and beyond what’s considered fair trade prices to import their beans. She was more focused on lifting the farms she works with out of poverty than chasing which country has the most popular or affordable inventory.

Then the coffee market spiked.

U.S. coffee prices were nearly 21% higher in August than a year earlier, according to data from the Consumer Price Index. The soaring costs, which American sellers say were in part caused by new tariffs on coffee exporters, sent specialty businesses like Thread Coffee into a tailspin.

Now, shops are trying to find a way to keep business alive without compromising who they are and what they’ve promised customers.

“There’s not a day that goes by where I’m not scared of losing our customers because our sticker shock is so great,” said Nani Ferreira-Mathews, Thread Coffee’s marketing director.

The recent jump in coffee prices, the biggest in decades, has prompted further criticism of President Donald Trump’s trade policy that went into effect Aug. 6, which quintupled a 10% tax on most imports from Brazil — the world’s largest coffee producer — to 50%. Major coffee exporters such as Vietnam and Indonesia were hit with tariffs of 20% and 19%, respectively, while many other countries continued to face a baseline tariff of 10%.

Trump signed an executive order this month that would make coffee exempt from tariffs for “aligned partners,” but it’s unclear when the exemption would take effect. U.S lawmakers also have introduced a bill aiming to end tariffs on coffee called the “No Coffee Tax Act,” which, if passed, would kick in after Jan. 19.

The Trump administration says tariffs are meant to encourage consumers to buy more American-made goods. But most raw, unharvested coffee beans, known as green coffee, are grown outside the country, with limited production in Hawaii and California. For decades, coffee makers imported their beans duty-free.

“We saw the highest market we’ve seen in 30 years [earlier this year],” said Ed Canty, a general manager for Cooperative Coffees, which imports beans to Thread Coffee and other shops across the country.

“Then we started getting into tariffs.”

Since June, Canty said, his organization has paid about $1 million in tariffs and still has 700,000 pounds of inventory it is trying to sell to American retailers, who find it too expensive to buy.

Cooperative Coffees noticed prices rising in the coffee market earlier this year and attributed it to a drought in Brazil that spooked traders into expecting low harvests. Although Canty does not import from Brazil, he said, a Brazilian green coffee scarcity affects the entire market, causing prices to rise.

Stan Constantine, president of Baltimore Coffee and Tea Co., grew up hoping for good weather in Brazil. With family ties to the industry that stretch back to the 1800s, he relies on the country for more than a third of his coffee beans.

“What’s frustrating about now is this is totally avoidable,” he said.

Earlier this year, it cost Constantine about $2.20 per pound to import beans from Brazil. Now it costs about $4.30 per pound.

He said there are containers of coffee beans off the South American country’s shore that he and other retailers can no longer afford. After months trying to absorb the added costs, he raised prices by 10%.

“We try to tell customers we’re not gouging anybody, we’re simply trying to stay in business,” he said.

Rida Shahbaz, who manages Hampden shop Good Neighbor, said they’ve tried to use Indonesian drip coffee because its berry-like qualities create a different flavor blend, as an alternative to Brazilian.

It’s not cheap. Some roasters warned Shahbaz that they are struggling to import and sell the same quality beans as pre-tariffs, and that variations in quality are also increasing the time it takes to grind specialty coffee.

So far, the shop has raised the price of its espresso by 15 cents, as well as the cost of certain syrups. Shahbaz will audit the menu at the end of the month to determine which other prices can change without losing customers.

“Some of our prices are being absorbed by our roasters,” said Good Neighbor owner Shawn Chopra. “But we’ve definitely had to account for price changes on all things.”

Tariffs on the European Union have increased the cost of some premium espresso machines that Black Acres Roastery co-founder Matt Nierenberg sold to shops like Good Neighbor. Nierenberg said the suggested market price is thousands of dollars more than what it cost last year.

“I’ve told some of our partners they should be upgrading their machines now,” he said. “If things continue, it could save them $2,000 to $3,000 later on.”

Ayda Abraham, who owns Adee’s Coffee Roasters, said she already increased the cost of her coffee in July and is nervous about raising it again.

She has been out of Brazilian coffee since January and tried to find a substitute, including adding Indonesian Sumatra to her coffee blends, along with Guatemalan and El Salvadoran. But the demand for those alternatives are also rising.

“Its not just the coffee,” she said. “Beans, syrups, cups, it’s almost doubled. Everybody’s complaining.”

Last week her supplier announced the cost to import matcha is rising due to a shortage in Japan.

Abraham’s business is the only Ethiopian-focused coffee shop in Baltimore, a heritage Abraham says the cafe would be lost without. At the beginning of each month, she holds ceremonies to introduce customers to her Ethiopian coffee varieties. No matter how expensive, losing Ethiopian beans is about as good as losing the business, she said.

There was a moment in February when Greenmount Avenue’s McKeel and Ferreira-Mathews of Thread Coffee said they had a similar discussion.

Ferreira-Mathews said the two wondered whether their commitment to working with the same farms and paying higher wages would put them at a disadvantage as the market climbed. They thought about purchasing “seconds,” or slightly lower-quality beans, to help with cost-cutting.

“I don’t know how any of us are going to survive this,” Ferreira-Mathews said.

“But I’d rather lose my business doing the right thing than save it doing the wrong thing.”