How Much You Save Brewing Espresso at Home

Just how expensive is a cup of coffee these days? Well, if you’re brewing at home, it turns out that it’s not all that much. In this article we’ll be taking a look at just how affordable it is to enjoy specialty coffee at home and how much money you could be saving by cutting the coffee shop out of your daily commute.

Brewing Coffee at Home

So, what does it really cost to brew espresso and cafe beverages at home? Well, I’ve put together a basic entry level home setup below with items from our catalog for your consideration. Based on where you’re shopping, sales tax could range anywhere from 0 - 7+%

Investing in Equipment

For the initial equipment investment I added everything that we would normally suggest someone buy for their first machine. I did add an asterisk on items that are “technically” optional, but are still great to have. I went with the Gaggia Classic E24 which is really the best place to start from a semi-auto perspective and the Eureka Mignon Silenzio 55 as a grinder. There’s definitely a bit of wiggle room grinder-wise where you could spend more or less and still get a suitable match for the E24. That said, I think it’s important to show that even when spending a little more on your grinder that the savings overall are still substantial. One other thing to note is that I’m listing these items at standard retail prices, but depending on when you buy them or how you bundle them, there’s likely going to be additional savings that lower the cost overall.

Things like a scale, a better tamper, water filtration and a dosing cup are essential in my opinion, though you could get away with descaling your machine and cut out water filters, you could use the stock tamper, and you could simply experiment with dosing visually (and then by time with the Silenzio) in order to eliminate the scale from your shopping list. Items marked with two asterisks will need to be replaced annually/semi-annually depending on use. It’s also worth noting that the Classic E24 doesn’t come with a backflush disc, but most other semi-automatic machines do.

Recurring Costs (Monthly)

This is where things get a little more complicated. Calculating these costs required a bit more thinking because I wanted to account for what I thought were reasonable scenarios for consumption. On average, American coffee drinkers consume three cups of coffee a day and in this calculation I considered a two person household. For all coffee beverages brewed I’m assuming an 18g shot is used. I’m also going off of the assumption that of a person’s average of three cups, that they’ll drink two of them at home and the third at work. To math that out for work days, that's 18g x 2 people x 2 drinks x 22 days. That gets us 1,584g of coffee. For the weekend, we’ll assume all coffee is made at home so that’s 18g x 2 people x 3 drinks x 8 days. That gets us another 864g of coffee for a total of 2,448g per month. Four bags of Crema Wave is 3,172g of coffee.

For milk consumption I placed it at 2 milk drinks per day per household on workdays and 3 per day on weekends. I also assumed that 4 fl oz of milk would be used per drink and a gallon of milk is 128 fl oz. So at 2 gallons a month, that’s 256 fl oz. For workdays that’s 2 drinks x 4 fl oz x 22 which gets us 176 fl oz. For weekends that's 3 drinks x 4 fl oz x 8 which gets us 64 fl oz for a total of 240 fl oz a month. So, adding up the coffee, the milk, and your water filter gets you to $117.56 per month.

Why 4oz of Milk?

So I wanted to touch on this briefly, but in my example for milk usage I use 4oz as my typical milk volume per drink. That's to account for the fact that milk will expand as volume is added while you're frothing. Depending on your preference a 4oz pour of milk can be expanded to 5 or 6oz with added air. One of our KINTO TO GO tumblers for example holds anywhere from 8 - 12 oz of liquid depending on the size, and in my minds' eye it's something like that tumbler that I'd be using to take my coffee with my on my commute. 

Daily Costs Per Cup

I imagine this is what you’ve been waiting for, so let’s take those numbers and divide them! I’ll be doing two calculations, one for the first year which will include the equipment costs, and one for a subsequent year with backflush and grinder cleaner factored in. Based on my math you’ll be making about 1,668 cups at home per year, 1,043 on weekdays and another 625 on weekends.

One last note is that these costs don’t include tax, so based on where you live you can multiply the results to get a better sense of what your final spend is going to be! Now, I realize that your coffee habits and drink preferences are probably going to differ a bit from what I have here, but it’s easy enough to simply increase quantities or add additional supplies as needed. Maybe you really like milk drinks so you buy three gallons a month, or maybe you always make mochas so you buy syrups every month.

Even if you don’t know how many drinks you make per day, you can still figure out how much your ingredients cost you per day like I demonstrated above. And then, you can use some national averages to help you figure out how much you’re saving.

The average cost of a regular cup of coffee in the United States is around $3 and a latte is around $5 - $6. That’s for a single drink. In the examples I've given, we're looking at a cost PER DAY of just $7.21 in the first year and $3.96 in the second year, and those days include between 4 and 6 drinks. That includes milk drinks btw, and let's say that you drank twice as much milk as I used in my example? Well, that's just another $107.28 a year.

The Dynamic Savings Calculator

We’ve calculated your at-home costs so now let’s take a look at how the coffee shops are doing. To make it even easier to visualize, we’ve built an interactive Savings Calculator that allows you to customize the variables based on your own coffee-buying habits. Simply input your daily coffee shop cost and compare it to the cost of brewing coffee at home. The calculator will show you exactly how much you’ll save each month and how quickly your equipment investment will pay for itself.

The Benefits Beyond Savings

I mentioned it in the intro, but there are obviously many benefits to brewing coffee at home outside of the financial ones we’ve discussed so far. But, for the sake of thoroughness we’ll do a little speed round here to finish things up.

Quality

So this one comes with a bit of a caveat, but it’s undeniable that some of the best espresso in the world is being made in people’s homes. There are several factors that contribute to quality and that might also inspire you to take a trip to the cafe every now and then. First is your equipment, there’s a huge selection of machines with a variety of performance levels. Second is your ingredients, and if you’re buying less premium coffee, milk, syrups, etc, you may not quite measure up to a specialty shop in your neighborhood. Last of course is you. You’re essentially taking on a second job as a barista so depending on your own level of commitment to quality, the coffee you make at home might be comparable to what you can get at the shop or it might not.

Fortunately, we’ve produced a ton of great articles like this one along with videos on our YouTube channel to help you brew better coffee at home. It’s really important to invest in a good grinder and to be open minded about trying new things and new coffees. Ultimately though, compared to the drive-thru, fast food restaurants, second wave shops and old-school cafes, you should be able to produce coffee that’s as good if not significantly better at home.

Convenience / Lifestyle

This is one of the easiest ones, but when you’re making your coffee at home, you can make it at any time and any way that you want. This is especially beneficial in the mornings when you might be running late or maybe the weather is nasty. Rather than making a stop at the cafe during your commute, you can make your drink at home, maybe even take it with you, and save on gas and time as a result.

Even more so however, you’ll be able to enjoy cafe quality drinks whenever you want. Whether you’re slinging back to back cappuccinos for a dinner party or just making a flat white for a lazy Sunday, investing into home espresso equipment means that when life calls for coffee, you’ve got it.

Building Equity

Believe it or not but there’s a pretty active secondary market when it comes to espresso machines and other coffee equipment. Going back to the concept of your home equipment as an investment, it’s important to remember that if you’re serious about getting more into the hobby that your purchases can serve as stepping stones into bigger and better equipment down the road. And, even if you aren’t inclined to sell your equipment, you can keep the savings in the family by gifting machines and grinders to your family and loved ones.

Wrapping Up

I'm hoping that you're coming away from this blog with a better idea of how much money you could be saving by brewing espresso at home. Even in the first year, if you're buying as few as two cups of coffee a day, you could be paying yourself back big time. Not to mention that making your own drinks at home can be a major lifestyle upgrade. If you're considering a machine for home, I definitely recommend that you book a CoffeeCast for a free consultation with one of our coffee experts.

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