How much of your ₹180 cappuccino is actually coffee? When you're starting off a café or a coffee shop, these are some questions that may pop up in your mind. In fact, don't feel like these are silly questions, because even experienced café owners sometimes do not know the answer.
How to work out coffee cost per cup
grams of coffee × price per kilo ÷ 1,000 = coffee cost per cup
So 9 g at ₹1,500 a kilo is 9 × 1,500 ÷ 1,000 = ₹13.50.
This is where most of the money goes, and it doesn't show up on any invoice.
Dialling in. Pulling three test shots of 9 g every morning uses 27 g a day, which is about 0.8 kg a month, or ₹1,215 at ₹1,500 a kilo. Fresh coffee that hasn't changed since yesterday usually needs only one shot to confirm.
Over-dosing. If baristas dose 10 g instead of 9 g, that's 11% more coffee in every cup. At 60 cups a day it adds up to 1.8 kg a month, or ₹2,700, for coffee that customers probably can't taste.
The way to find your own number is to measure it. For one week, weigh the dose on every shot and count the ones that end up in the knock box without being sold.
Cheap beans and good beans, per cup
At 9 g a shot, coffee at ₹800 a kilo costs ₹7.20 a cup and coffee at ₹1,500 costs ₹13.50, so the difference is ₹6.30 a cup, or 3.5% of a ₹180 cappuccino.
Coffee is the one part of the cup your customers taste as yours. The milk is much the same as at the café next door, and so is the cup it comes in. So why would you compromise on ₹6 a cup, when better coffee is what keeps a customer coming back again and again?
How much coffee a café uses
At 9 g per single-shot cappuccino, 30 working days a month, before any waste:
Cups a day
Coffee a month
Cost at ₹1,500 a kg
30
8.1 kg
₹12,150
60
16.2 kg
₹24,300
100
27 kg
₹40,500
150
40.5 kg
₹60,750
A café using 16 kg a month should split that into fortnightly deliveries, because a shelf of open bags goes stale fast.
Become a B2B partner
If you want to become a B2B partner of Tiny Tiger, head to our Café Program page and tell us your monthly volume and what you pay per kilo now. We'll send a like-for-like quote within one working day. Our café pricing starts from ₹1,200/kg with a 5 kg minimum, depending on which coffee you choose, and you can order a paid Café Sampler from the same page to taste our coffees on your own machine first.
Common questions
How many grams of coffee go in a cappuccino?
Many cafés use a single shot of about 9 g of ground coffee in a 180 ml cappuccino, and some use a double shot of about 18 g. What matters more than the exact number is weighing it every time, so each cup tastes the same and costs the same.
How many cups of coffee does 1 kg make in a café?
About 111 single shots at 9 g, or about 55 double shots at 18 g. After dialling in and the occasional discarded shot, plan on about 100 single-shot cappuccinos per kilo.
What is a good food cost percentage for coffee drinks?
Coffee and milk together are usually 20 to 30% of the menu price of a milk drink, which is lower than for most food. At ₹180, a 180 ml single-shot cappuccino with ₹13.50 of coffee and ₹10.50 of milk has an ingredient cost of about 13%, and a double shot takes it to about 21%.
