A Melbourne cafe owner has shared a simple reason why customers tend to pay a higher price for coffee made with plant milk such as almond or soy.

Dan Dick, who runs four cafes in Melbourne, explained on TikTok that in addition to the price difference between alternative milks – “almost twice the price of cow’s milk” – there is also another hidden cost that many customers are unaware of.

“Having six different types of milk complicates the work, especially for takeaway coffee, which is the backbone of my business. It slows down service,” said the founder of Born and Raised Coffee.

He explained that instead of steaming a large jug of milk and making batches, the milk for each drink had to be steamed separately.

“I was on shift this morning and I made about 12 drinks in a row that couldn’t be grouped together because they were all made with different types of milk. It slows things down a lot,” he said.

The veteran barista, who worked in other restaurants before striking out on his own, said he was considering offering one type of milk for free, in the hope that non-dairy drinkers would mostly choose that option.

“If you drank almond milk, would you drink soy or oat milk if there was no subsidy? And taking it a step further, if prices rose and black coffee remained cheaper, would you, as a milk drinker, be willing to switch to black coffee?”

“This can help me control my financial performance and influence my workflow to help deliver coffee faster.”

Plant-based milk alternatives are more expensive when ordering coffee at a coffee shop, with one business owner explaining that not only are they more expensive, they also “disrupt workflow”

Many coffee lovers have shared their views on the dairy dilemma.

“I really like the idea of ​​having one milk on sale for the same price as regular milk,” one said.

“I think that if the subsidy is to apply to some types of alternative milk, it could just as well be introduced to all. Often people have a specific milk because they are allergic to others and do not want to switch to cheaper ones,” added another.

“Consumers need to be cost-conscious if they want to buy a premium product,” said a third respondent.

“I usually drink oat milk. I would switch to soy milk if there was no subsidy, but I wouldn’t switch to almond milk because almond milk is quite watery,” said a fourth.

One said that as an alternative milk drinker, he was “considering buying a decent coffee machine for the first time” because he “can’t afford to spend $7 a day on one.”

Another commenter suggested that if they do this, they will still be able to buy coffee beans from their local coffee shop and thus support small businesses.

Takeaway coffee seems to be one of the few luxuries Australians refuse to give up, even as their financial situation has worsened in recent years.

Coffee sales remained stable despite the economic crisis.

While many of us were disappointed when prices started to rise last year, they have since stabilized at $4 to $5.50 for a basic drink.

But that could soon change. By international standards, Australian coffee prices are low.

Dan Dick of Born and Raised Coffee in Melbourne said that making coffee with different types of milk requires the barista to brew a separate jug of coffee for each order, rather than making them in batches

A recent study of Australian capital cities by the University of South Australia found that the average price of a small flat white to go at coffee shops is AUD4.78.

However, in some national capitals the figure is almost twice as high, even after taking into account local purchasing power parity.

In London, a small flat white costs around A$6.96. In Singapore – A$8.42. In Athens – a whopping A$9.95.

The latest IBISWorld data shows that while Australian coffee shop net profits recovered from a decline in 2020 to 7.6 per cent, they are still well below the average Australian business profit margin of 13.3 per cent.

If you looked only at the cost of the raw materials needed to make coffee to go—the milk, beans, cup and lid—the margin might seem attractive, but that doesn’t tell the full story.

According to Adelaide-based Pablo and Rusty Coffee Roasters, milk and coffee beans make up about 24 per cent of the cost of coffee.

The maintenance costs for the cup, lid and barista equipment are about 10 percent.

Building rent, operating costs and GST make up another 32 per cent, with the remaining 34 per cent being employee wages.