Price of a Coffee.

Too much snobbery on coffee, hence the small "craft" guys think they have to use beans that cost €35/kg, bring on all the showmanship and then have to charge €4-€5

The fuel stations will go 50c-€1 below this for their automated machine coffee using everyday beans that cost about €10/kg

For the craft guys, the wages cost about €18/hour on minimum wage (min wage + holidays + prsi + payroll costs) and this is primarily borne by the sales of coffee whereas in a fuel station or convenience store the wage element of the coffee is miniscule.

Add in rent and rates and the usual costs of business and the coffee shops struggle whereas the fuel stations and convenience stores enjoy good profits.

Applegreen stated several years ago that a coffee and sandwich provided more profit than a tank of fuel, hence their focus on low fuel margins to attract motorists to their coffee machines.

As for the european comparison. A single shot espresso can be €1, but its 8g of coffee in a tiny cup and similarly the american at €1.50 is same with added water in an 8oz cup. It is cheaper, but in Spain in the outer Malaga regions a 12oz coffee using a double shot (16g) is €2.50 - €3, in Germany it €3 - €3.50 and in Italy (sicily) its €2 - €2.50.

I've no issue paying €4 or €5 if it also includes nice seating and relaxing atmosphere to chill out for 30 min.

Starbucks (I know, I know) have surpassed €7 for my usual now, venti white mocha with peppermint.

But if I want an actual coffee, as opposed to a sugar and coffee and flavour etc, even my local garage on their (new) self serve machines are near €4 for a 'large' americano or cappucino. I say 'large' rather than large because the 'large' are only 16oz, large should be 20oz

What town is that & are the leases & rates cheap and is the coffee good?

I find recently good coffee isn't enough, there has to be some good offerings too, baked pastries etc…

Either way, there's always going to be people that are willing to pay for good food.

Bought a Sage Barista Express around 4 years ago, cost €500 but easily one of the best purchases I ever made. It makes us 2 to 3 coffees per day at home, I have one in the morning before heading out and that will give me my fix for the day.

I do buy them out the odd time but it's such an expensive habit at €4 per cup. Colleagues in work buy them everyday before they even shell out for lunch yet moan all the time about the "cost of living".

Why can't people just buy what they can afford without other's judging them?

If they want a takeaway coffee or a breakfast delivered to them on a Sunday morning, let them at it, makes no difference to your life whatsoever.

Whatever about the price of coffee, the price of tea from a cafe is truly a rip off

It's usually around €2.50 for a cup as I recall and the input labour and ingredients probably cost 30c

At least a lot of places have the cop on to give you a pot with 2-3 cups worth in it

You do realise that the only difference in the volume of the Americano is more/less water? Unless you specify the number of shots

It's never about what something is worth, it's about what people are prepared to pay.

Personally, I love Nescafe's instant expresso at €8 a jar. I even have the posh little cups. Lasts me a month.

The quality of Starbucks coffee is awful. It tastes like tea to me.

Getting annoyed at the coffee shops saying they just have to charge that, there's a guy in Tipperary charging €5 an Americano. Trying to justify it on tik tok.

Sometimes you have to take a step back and just say it's just a coffee, it can only get so expensive. You can go on and on about the beans and roasting but it's a coffee. Beans and hot water. If you're charging that much for a cup maybe you shouldn't be doing business.

I don't care about the cost of business and you telling me why it has to be that much. I care about what is going out of my pocket as much as they care about what's going in to theirs so a halfway point has to be met.

Same with pizza costing upwards of €20+ euro in some places. It's bread, tomato and cheese. At some point, you can't justify something so simple, being so expensive.

If he's charging that much for a coffee then there is either a market for it or not.

If there is not and he can't cut his costs so that he can make a decent profit from selling a coffee cheaper then he is gone out of business.

You can't expect people to sell stuff at a loss just because you think their price is too expensive.

An espresso is coffee plus water plus the labour of making one

A pizza is flour, yeast, water, tomato sauce, cheese and toppings plus the labour of making one

I'll leave it to you to figure out which of those is the most expensive

There's also tax, rent and bills as extra costs

I'm sure many coffee shops and pizzerias make a profit but I doubt they're raking in millions. Honestly as business models go they seem pretty terrible since you're heavily dependent on the price and quality of labour rather than the ingredients

If you don't like paying for them then don't, make your own or do without. That's the handy thing with discretionary spending, you can stop if you want

So where is the best place - bang for your buck - for coffee in Dublin?

Thats my experience of Italy too. Yes, you might pay a lot less than Ireland but they serve you a cappuccino in an cup only slightly bigger than an espresso. I needed two cups to wet my whistle enough to eat a very dry croissant. They, of course, say we are vulgar northern european pigs who expect coffee to be sold in buckets. I say it's a massive racket to empty the pockets of gullible tourists.

The Old Barracks in Birdhill looks good tbf, their adults only policy is interesting.