What’s the cost of making coffee? Knowing the coffee cost per cup may be a deciding factor when choosing what brand to buy. Check it out!

After all, exactly what’s the cost per cup of coffee?

Well, my answer is:

It depends… That is basically related to the concentration of your brewing and the size of your cup.

We will be using the 6oz-cup (filled with 5 ounces) for this Cost of Making Coffee article.

NOTE: Finding out how to calculate other sizes is not that difficult using Cross-multiplication. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross-multiplication>

Let’s try to sort it out by analyzing five different (grams of powder per cup) coffee densities:

• Strong Brew
• Medium Brew
• Mild Brew (average)
• Weak Brew
• Diluted Brew

Cost of Making Coffee

Strong Brew
(9.3 g/cup)

A strong, or hearty brew, yields 240 ounces (7.1L), or 48.5 cups of mojo, from 1 pound of coffee powder.

So, if your pound of coffee cost $4.85 (!!), your price per cup would be $0.10! Therefore:

$/Lb – $/cup

$6.00 – $0.12
$8.00 – $0.16
$10.00 – $0.21
$15.00 – $0.31
$20.00 – $0.41

Medium Brew
(8.9 g/cup)

A medium brew, yields 256 ounces (7.6L), or 51 cups of joe, from a pound of coffee grounds.

Therefore:

$/Lb – $/cup

$4.85 – $0.10
$6.00 – $0.12
$8.00 – $0.16
$10.00 – $0.20
$15.00 – $0.29
$20.00 – $0.39

Mild Brew
(8.2 g/cup)

The mild brew, yields 272 ounces (8.4L), or 55 cups of coffee, from a 1-Lb pack of coffee powder.

Therefore:

$/Lb – $/cup

$4.85 – $0.09
$6.00 – $0.11
$8.00 – $0.15
$10.00 – $0.18
$15.00 – $0.27
$20.00 – $0.36

You can use this concentration for an average calculation with a small margin of error.

Roughly, you can calculate that the average price for a 6-oz cup of beverage is the price of the coffee powder multiplied by 2 and then divided by 100.

Weak Brew
(7.4 g/cup)

The weak brew, yields 305 ounces (7.6L), or 61 cups of joe, from a pound of coffee.
Therefore:

$/Lb – $/cup

$4.85 – $0.08
$6.00 – $0.10
$8.00 – $0.13
$10.00 – $0.16
$15.00 – $0.25
$20.00 – $0.33

Diluted Brew
(6.4 g/cup)

The weak brew, yields 368 ounces (10.9L), or 74 cups of coffee, from a pound of coffee grounds.

Therefore:

$/Lb – $/cup

$4.85 – $0.07
$6.00 – $0.08
$8.00 – $0.11
$10.00 – $0.14
$15.00 – $0.20
$20.00 – $0.27

What can we conclude from all the numbers above? In my opinion, it’s very easy to state that the amount of cash from the strongest concentration compared to the most diluted one, is not very significant cup-wise.

However, if you are a heavy-load hardcore coffee drinker, the coffee quality cost may be a deciding factor when choosing a brand, depending on your budget.

 

• These calculations are based on all hot brewing methods. It all depends on the amount of ground coffee per cup you are using, of course.
• Those amounts are indicated under each concentration title and are the result of dividing 453 grams (1Lb) by the number of cups yielded.
• Metric measures are rounded-off
• Servings per Batch are rounded-off
• Coarser coffee grounds provide lighter concentrations of brewster.

This article was written inspired by, and all calculations were made using, the awesome tool by Gillies Coffee Company (www.gilliescoffee.com/calculator). Nevertheless, making your own calculations “by hand” or creating a spreadsheet is not difficult.

 

Click here if you want to read more articles about coffee.

 

Please, leave a comment about this What’s the Cost of Making Coffee? article.