Q.     What about the operating costs to make a cup of coffee - fresh beans and ingredient costs?

A. The costs per cup will depend on the quality and hence the cost of the ingredients used. For a reasonably priced premium blend of freshly roasted coffee beans you can expect to pay $25.00 - $30.00 per kg. Using an 8gm coffee dose (recommended dose for a good tasting espresso) that works out at around $0.20- $0.24c per cup.

It is simply not possible to make a fresh bean to cup espresso for $0.09c as some less than honest machine providers would have you believe. For a standard single shot cappuccino, the total cost of all ingredients (including fresh or powdered milk) comes to around $0.50 - $0.70 per cup. For a double shot it is about $0.75 - $0.90 per cup.