Coffee prices are on the march, and the costs of the milk, sugar and even paper cups also are climbing. But whereas other commodities such as copper or oil have been pushed up by demand from developing countries, coffee is a different case. Demand has only edged up, and much of the recent surge is because of speculators hopping into the commodity.

Oren's Daily Roast, a boutique coffee store in New York City, has charged $2.95 for a medium latte for the past two years. Now, owner Oren Bloostein is considering a price increase of perhaps 3 percent for a cup of coffee and up to 10 percent for the coffee beans it sells. ''It is very disconcerting,'' said Bloostein. But after an 11 percent increase in ingredients since the beginning of this year, ''I need to raise my prices so that I can remain in business.''

(In the Salt Lake City area, the rising price of milk, more than the cost of coffee beans, has had an impact on many shop owners. Ed Beazer of Just Add Coffee said he has raised prices twice in the past year, "and milk has been the biggest culprit. It used to be $1.80 a gallon and now it's $3.60, though it has gone down a bit. We've seen maybe one increase in the price of beans in five years.")

The price pressures worldwide on a cup of joe began building last year. The price of the coffee rose 7.7 percent last year, while milk climbed 24 percent. Now, spurred by tight supplies of coffee beans and investors looking for the next commodity run-up, prices are boiling over. The price of green coffee beans has risen 22 percent since the beginning of the year in trading on ICE Futures U.S.

Faced with higher costs in acquiring coffee beans, major U.S roasters Procter & Gamble Co. and Kraft Foods Inc. last month increased prices on ground and instant brands, including Maxwell House and Folgers. It was the second price increase in four months. An 11-to-13-ounce container of Maxwell now costs $3.74, compared with $3.59 last fall.

Starbucks Corp. boosted prices of its lattes, cappuccinos and other coffee drinks in September by an average of 1.9 percent. The chain hasn't lifted prices since then, partially because 94 percent of its coffee supplies come through fixed-price contracts. Still, it mentioned commodity-price risk ''generated by . . . green coffee and dairy products'' as the ''primary market risk'' in its latest earnings report.

Coffee is considered price inelastic, meaning changes have little effect on consumption. Even if the coffee price doubles, drinkers still must have their cup in the morning; on the other hand, if prices drop, coffee drinkers don't typically start downing two espressos instead of one.

Coffee isn't the only hot food item these days. The whole sector of soft commodities - products that are grown instead of mined - has been heating up recently, with cocoa and sugar up 35 percent and 32 percent, respectively, since the beginning of the year. Unlike the big increases in demand for commodities such as copper or oil, coffee consumption will rise 1.6 percent this year to 125 million bags, according to the International Coffee Organization in London. One bag equals 132 pounds.

The coffee price run-up is being driven by a potentially temporary period of tight supplies and by speculators. Coffee stocks have fallen to 18.3 million bags, the lowest since 1961, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, because of a 7.3 percent decline in last year's world production. That is largely because coffee production in Brazil, which accounts for 30 percent of world output, often has high-production years followed by low-production years. Last year, it was down 21 percent.

Brazil's output this year - estimated to be up as much as 31 percent - will ''serve only to replenish low stocks,'' said Gil Carlos Barabach, an analyst with Safras & Mercado, a Brazilian agricultural business consultancy.

Just as in the oil and metals markets, investment funds have played a big role in the coffee run-up. On IntercontinentalExchange Inc.'s ICE Futures U.S., the world's main coffee-trading arena, coffee's open interests, the number of unclosed positions, has shot up 50 percent over the past year. It is now at an all-time high of 191,977 contracts, according to the Commitments of Traders Report. The increase in trading is widely attributed to investment funds.

United Kingdom hedge fund Armajaro Asset Management in October launched a commodities fund, called CC+, to focus on cocoa and coffee, and the fund expects to amass $500 million in assets.