Our caffeine addictions are the latest to be hit by inflation as experts are now warning that flat whites – the millennial coffee of choice – are about to cost us more than £4 a cup for the first time.
Price hikes are forcing the cost of milk to hit an all-time high and your favourite coffee shop will have to pass this soaring cost back onto you – with many businesses now fearing that a takeaway cup of joe is about to become a ‘luxury lifestyle decision’.
Flat whites topped £3 at UK chains for the first time ever this August but coffee pros are now predicting that this will go up again before the end of 2022.
Robi Lambie, coffee roaster and co-founder of Cairngorm Coffee in Edinburgh, is just one business owner worried about what this might for his company.
“One worry we have is that rising costs could push the price of coffee into a bracket where customers decide it’s more of a luxury lifestyle decision, rather than everyday morning essential,” he said.
“A flat white coffee will cost at least £4 by the end of the year – it sounds ludicrous, but it’s the position we’re likely to find ourselves in.”
A pint of milk in August 2022 was 62p, Lambie explains, which marks the highest its ever cost since records began in 1971.
And it’s not just the cost of milk causing problems for your local barista – gas is needed to roast coffee and the price of running big coffee machines is soaring amid the cost of living crisis.
According to Julie Dunn, operations director at Dunns Food and Drinks, the nation’s whole hospitality sector faces “a perfect storm of price rises, strike disruption, and rising energy costs.”
“The likelihood is people will be less willing to spend on luxuries like eating out. When the festivities come to an end in January, hospitality venues are set to experience a very quiet start to the year,” she warns.
As money becomes tighter for all of us amid the cost of living crisis, it’s more important than ever to support local where we can.