How to cost a coffee drink: espresso, milk, syrup, cup and lid, with a cost card

Ask a café owner what a latte costs to make, and you'll often hear a number for the coffee and the milk. Then the cup, lid and sleeve get added at the end, if they're added at all. On a to-go drink, the packaging can cost close to as much as the milk.

This post shows how to cost a drink line by line, with a worked cost card for six common drinks. Every money figure here is hypothetical. Use your own invoices. For costing food plates, see our guide to plate costing and menu pricing.

The formulas

Every line on a drink cost card comes from one of three formulas.

Cost per unit = pack price ÷ units in the pack Line cost = amount used × cost per unit ÷ yield Drink cost % = drink cost ÷ menu price (before sales tax)

Yield is the share of what you buy that ends up in the cup. It's how you account for waste you can't avoid: shots pulled while dialing in the grinder, milk left in the pitcher, coffee poured out of the urn at the end of its holding time. A yield of 90% means every gram that reaches a guest costs 1 ÷ 0.90 of the invoice price.

Step 1: Cost the espresso

1. Find the cost per gram. Divide the bag price by the grams in the bag. A 5 lb bag holds about 2,268 g. At a hypothetical $60.00, that's about $0.0265 a gram.
2. Use your recipe's dose, not a guess. If your recipe card says 18 g for a double shot, use 18 g.
3. Set a yield for dial-in and waste. Weigh what goes in the grinder for a week and compare it with what the recipes say. If the gap is 5%, your yield is 95%.

Hypothetical: 18 g × $0.0265 ÷ 0.95 = $0.50 per double shot.

Step 2: Cost the milk

Measure what you pour for each size, not what the cup holds. Steam a normal drink into a measuring jug a few times and take the average. The difference between what you pour and what ends up in the cup (milk left in the pitcher) is your yield.

Hypothetical: whole milk at $4.00 a gallon (128 oz) is about $0.031 an ounce. With an 85% yield:

Iced drinks often use less milk, because ice takes up room. Measure them separately.

Step 3: Cost the flavor

For syrups and sauces, find the cost of one pump: pump ten times into a measuring cup, divide by ten to get ounces per pump, then multiply by the bottle's cost per ounce. Hypothetical: $0.12 a pump, two pumps in a 16 oz drink, $0.24.

Write the number of pumps per size on the recipe card. A barista who adds a third pump "for good measure" adds 50% to the syrup line.

Step 4: Cost the packaging

This is the line most cost cards skip. Each to-go drink uses a cup and a lid, and often a sleeve or a straw. Take the case price and divide by the count in the case.

A drink served in a mug has no packaging line, but it isn't free: it has dishwashing labor, water and breakage instead. Most cafés cost the to-go version and use that number for both, so the price works however the guest orders.

The cost card

All figures hypothetical.

How the drip line works: 22 g of coffee per 12 oz cup × $0.0265 = $0.58, then ÷ 0.90, because about 10% of each batch is poured away when it passes its holding time. That's $0.65. Drip has the highest cost % on this card even though its total cost is the lowest. Batch waste is the reason, and it's the line to watch.

Notice what packaging does: on the 12 oz latte it's $0.19 of $1.02, almost a fifth of the cost.

Step 5: Price from a target

Once you know the cost, you can work out a price from the cost % you're aiming for:

Price = drink cost ÷ target cost %

Hypothetical: a 16 oz vanilla latte at $1.39 with a 22% target is $1.39 ÷ 0.22 = $6.32. Round to a price that fits your board, $6.50 here.

Then compare with what cafés near you charge. Our guide to raising menu prices covers how to change prices without losing regulars.

Cost % isn't the whole story, either. A drink at 28% that sells all morning may bring in more dollars than one at 18% that sells five a day. Look at dollars per drink as well as the percentage.

Step 6: Check it against what you actually use

A cost card is a theory. Once a month, compare it with the real numbers:

• Beans: pounds bought (adjusted for the change in stock) against shots sold × dose. A big gap means dial-in waste, remakes, staff drinks or a dose that's crept up.
• Milk: gallons used against drinks sold × ounces poured.
• Cups and lids: cups used against drinks sold. More cups than drinks usually means double-cupping, spills or cups given away for water.

If the gap is steady, adjust the yield on the card. If it's growing, find out why.

The cost card template

One card per drink and size. A 12 oz and a 16 oz latte are two cards.

When to review the card

• When a supplier price changes for beans, milk or packaging.
• When you change a recipe, such as a new dose or a new cup size.
• When you change suppliers for cups and lids.
• At least once a quarter, even if nothing seems to have changed.

Your drink costing checklist

• [ ] Cost per gram of each coffee you use
• [ ] Dose per drink from the recipe card, with a yield for dial-in waste
• [ ] Milk measured by size, hot and iced, with a yield
• [ ] Syrup cost per pump and pumps per size written down
• [ ] Cup, lid, sleeve and straw costed from the case price
• [ ] A cost card for each drink and size
• [ ] Prices checked against a target cost %, and dollars per drink
• [ ] A monthly check of beans, milk and cups against sales
• [ ] A review date in the calendar

Where Mays fits

• One recipe per drink and size. In Inventory → Recipes, a recipe is one serving. Add the espresso, milk and syrup, and the cup, lid and sleeve too: any inventory item can be an ingredient. Set Qty, Unit and Yield % on each line and the Serving price $. See Recipes and plate costing.
• Cost and cost % worked out for you. Each line is costed from the cheapest active vendor price for the item, divided by the pack size and the yield. The recipe shows its Cost and Cost %, and the recipes list shows a cost % above 35% in red.
• A drinks target. Put the drinks in a Drinks menu list with a Target cost % and compare it with the list's Actual %. See Menu lists and modifiers.
• Prices that follow your invoices. Add cups and lids as items with their case size and vendor price. A new price on a posted invoice shows up in every recipe that uses the item. See Inventory items and Vendor invoices.

What Mays doesn't do: there are no sub-recipes on the web, so a house syrup or cold brew concentrate can't be costed once and used in several drinks. Add its ingredients to each drink, or cost it as an item.

Cost the cup, not just the coffee

Coffee, milk, flavor and packaging, each with an honest yield. Put it on a card, price from a target, and check the card against what you actually buy each month. The latte that feels like a bargain to make may be the one that needs a new price.

Start your free trial: 30 days, every module, no card needed. Or book a walkthrough and we'll cost your drinks menu with you.