We’ve all been there, we like coffee but a good espresso machine is expensive….
At the end of 2023 I bought a proper machine (profitec pro 400 + eureka mignon single grinder). We count every doppio/cappuccino that we make to keep track of the “coffee per cup”
Last week we made the 2600th cup of coffee, let me break down the numbers for you.
The total investment in hardware is approximately €2200. We buy our beans at a local roaster at €0.44 per cup. The milk for the cappuccino is approximately €0.36 per cup. The cappuccino vs doppio ratio is 1:2, bringing our average coffee/milk cost per cup to €0.56.
After 2600 cups (~26 months, orange graph) we’ve spent a total of €3620(blue graph) on hardware+coffee+milk, decreasing the cost per cup to €1.40. (Brown graph)
If we had bought all the cups at our local coffee shop (€4), it would’ve set us back €10.400 (green graph).
So, for those of you in doubt, it’s 100% worth the investment 😉 use this information as you please 😉
Disclaimer: of course, with a proper espresso machine at home you drink more coffee that you’d buy at a cafe, but the price per cup from the home setup is €1.39 vs €4 at the coffee shop is astonishing 😉
Ps. We “save” €0.5 per cup in a jar, in case the machine breaks down or if we want to buy extra tools, so in practice we spent €1.89 on average, of which 26% is saved in case of an emergency.
by jjbvd1993
16 Comments
How does your initial price per cup start higher than your initial expenses?
Ha! So it’s not the avocado toasts keeping millennials in poverty, it’s the coffee!
I’m not double checking your maths, just trusting them.
However, I think there is something not fully real on your theory. If I didn’t have a espresso machine, I wouldn’t drink the same amount of coffee, that for sure.
And if I wanted to maximize savings, probably I would have a cheaper setup (mine is way less than yours BTW, around 800 including accessories) or even go to a moka pot.
Bottom line: home barista is a hobby to do because you enjoy it. You might save some money, but that shouldn’t be the end goal.
excellent double espresso costs less than 2€ where I live, while machines and grinders are more expensive here. I don’t have any illusions about saving money, I spend them on the things I like.
Haha funny, I just made a similar sheet to calculate expenses, beans, machines, milk and such to get an idea of how long it would take break even!
If I buy a marzocco mini and a niche zero, and stay at 1 kg beans per month at current rates (approx 40 eur/kg) with the current nr of cups per day, then it also approx 3 yrs.
And that does not include the real possibility of my children jumping on the coffee train, which could significantly bump the nr cappuccino and flat whites I’d be making. 🤗😉
I have much higher coffee price per cup, nearly 0,8€. Milk on the other hand is cheap, only 0,2€ per my normali 0,25l cup. My machine is now 19 years old, with similar new price as your system so not much cost from that anymore.
>We buy our beans at a local roaster at €0.44 per cup.
Could you elaborate on this? Price per kg + your typical dose?
Over here it’s 38 EUR/kg for decent Ethiopia, I use 18-20 gr per cup, this gives 50-55 cups per kg, or 0.7 EUR/cup. Most coffee shops use much cheaper beans selling espresso for 4 EUR.
When a flat white cost hit £3 in Manchester, UK 2021 I bought a Sage bambino plus. Then when they hit £4 in 2025 I bought a roaster, Sandbox smart R1. Now I never go out and I couldn’t be happier. Ha
I appreciate the sentiment and stuff, but my home espresso machine can’t give me coffee when I’m out and about during the day, on vacation, or just want to sit in a cafe and chill out. I still spend as much on coffee out and about haha
Also the coffee I get from my setup is wayyy better than from the coffee shop around me.
I was given a Delonghi Dedica when I moved in since the owner didn’t want it. I didn’t drink coffee or espresso much before either, so its been crazy profit margins since then!
Have you included your electricity costs in this?
Having two different scales on the same axis makes this chart completely invalid.
As indicated in the colour, everything except for the price per cup is measured on the left axis 🙂
Does this graph imply your coffee shop expenses skyrocketed after you became a home barista?
Did you add the cost of machine running for each cup?
Like energy consumption and maintenace?