The 1,30€ cortado: why bar coffee is getting pricier and tastes worse

The 1,30€ cortado that lays bare the bar coffee business

A 1,30€ cortado doesn't shock because of what it costs, but because of what's in the cup afterwards. Paying that much for a coffee in a bar and getting a weak liquid, often cold and with less milk than a café con leche (coffee with milk), is the trigger for a complaint that is no longer only about the price. The change, on top of that, arrives on the saucer, as an invitation to tip. The problem isn't so much what you're charged as what you're served.

Why is the price of coffee in bars going up?

The price range for bar coffee is now so wide that the price stops being an objective fact and becomes a strategy. 1,30€ for a cortado coexists with franchises charging between 1,50€ and 1,80€ and with places that have kept an espresso and a café con leche at 1€ and 1,20€. The pattern of cheap coffee as bait isn't new either: some establishments price it at 0,50€ and fill the bar in the morning to sell a drink, a cigarette or breakfast. Others, with a loyalty scheme, require a 20€ prepaid voucher to access that minimum price, so the low rate works as an entry fee.

No one disputes that the bar owner has costs —product, premises, electricity, staff and local taxes—, but the rip-off is felt when the price goes up without the contents going up. And that raises an uncomfortable question: does it really cost that much to serve a coffee, or has the margin been stretched because the customer puts up with it?

How much does it cost a bar owner to serve a coffee?

The calculation circulating among professionals puts a kilo of mid-to-high-range coffee at around 13€, enough for about 100 coffees. The raw material therefore comes to a few cents per cup. The rest is accounted for by rent, the electricity bill, payroll and local taxes, items that don't fit in the glass but explain the final bill. The difference between bars lies in the choice of bean: the cheapest torrefactos fall below 10€ a kilo, and the saving is paid for on the palate. A bar owner who serves espresso, cortado and café con leche at 1€ with a chocolate included maintains that looking after the customer and not deceiving them brings them back, and with them more people.

Torrefacto: the problem isn't the price, it's the bean

Much of the anger isn't aimed at the bill, but at what's in the hopper. The coffee served in most bars is torrefacto (coffee roasted with sugar), a practice that cheapens the product and has become the norm in the hospitality trade. Some describe it bluntly as a harmful brew, while others recall that big brands serve torrefacto because it is exactly what bars demand. The recipe proposed by the most coffee-obsessed involves looking at the grinder: black, shiny beans betray roasting with sugar. As an escape route there are chains like Starbucks, Costa or Nero, with a different type of bean, though also with machines not always known for their cleanliness.

Cold coffee and reheated milk: the liturgy of bad coffee

Another front is temperature, and there the complaint is unanimous: the coffee arrives cold. Behind it is a mechanism that is hardly mysterious. In quiet hours, half a jug of milk is put in the steamer, heated almost to boiling, left out, and when the next customer comes in, the same milk is reheated. Some have counted up to eighteen reheats from the same jug, with milk that turns sour and coffee that tastes awful. Sometimes the foam is unnecessary, hasn't been ordered, and arrives crowned with a drawing and a final torero-style flourish.

Good coffee also exists, and it's almost always drunk at home

Faced with the concoction at the bar, many enthusiasts have moved to the living room. There, machines like Saeco, burr grinders —conical rather than flat, because they heat the bean less— and brands such as Lavazza or Illy appear, with ranges rarely seen in hospitality. The extreme is marked by varieties like Yemen's Mocha Sanani, which costs around 60€ a kilo and isn't found on just any shelf. The gap between home coffee and bar coffee has widened to the point that some people have stopped ordering it out.

With raw material at a few cents per cup, a price range running from the loss leader of 0,50€ to the 1,80€ of a franchise, and torrefacto still reigning at the bar, the question is no longer how much a coffee should cost. It's how many customers will keep paying 1,30€ for one they have no desire to drink.