Why roasters and coffee shops need to strategise their menu pricing

In the current specialty coffee landscape, roasters and café owners face an increasingly complex financial squeeze. Green coffee prices reached historic highs earlier this year, prompting business owners to adjust their sourcing strategies and explore alternative funding options.

Meanwhile, operating costs – from labour to rent to packaging – continue to climb, making cash flow management even more challenging. To stay competitive as they source more cost-effective coffees, while still offering a smaller range of high-end micro lots, roasters must be strategic with their menu prices.

To learn more, I spoke to Darius Vėželis, the CEO of Vero Coffee House, and Silvia Constantin Graham, the owner of First Coffee and the Barista School Romania. 

You may also like our article on why roasters now have to compete on more than price alone.

Catering to growing beverage trends

The specialty coffee industry is undergoing a shift in consumer preferences, compelling business owners to become more strategic with their menus and, consequently, their pricing.

Coffee customisation has emerged as one of the most dominant trends. A growing number of customers, particularly those in Gen Z, are increasingly viewing espresso and milk-based drinks as an ingredient or foundation to build rather than a complete coffee experience. They seek personalisation through an array of syrups, alternative milks, functional additions like collagen or protein, and seasonal flavour innovations – with cold brew and other cold coffee drinks leading the charge.

This evolution reflects a broader consumer desire for experiences that feel both individualised and indulgent, satisfying not just the need for caffeine but also for novelty, comfort, and self-expression.

“With sustained high green coffee costs, specialty coffee faces big competition with customised and functional drinks. It doesn’t mean specialty coffee shops should turn to commercial-grade coffees, but they need to showcase the difference more clearly,” says Darius Vėželis, the CEO of Vero Coffee House, a specialty coffee shop and roastery in Kaunas, Lithuania. “This is easy with millennials, as they are continually interested in taste profiles and information about origin, but we need to find a different language and approach for Gen Z.

“Only a few markets like the Middle East or East Asia are seeing a rise in demand for high-quality coffee. In Europe, especially Central and Eastern Europe, the new generation is looking for customisation or functional drinks, and they have a wide choice of alternatives to coffee,” he adds.

This customisation boom creates both opportunities and complexities for coffee pricing strategies. On one hand, it enables businesses to create compelling value propositions where customers pay premium prices for beverages tailored to their preferences. 

On the other hand, it transforms menu pricing into a multivariable equation where profitability depends not just on coffee quality and cost, but on the balance of multiple ingredients, each with its own supply chain vulnerabilities and price fluctuations. 

To add complexity, consumers maintain high expectations for the underlying coffee quality, creating a paradoxical demand for both creative beverage enhancements and foundational excellence.

Balancing quality with consumer demand

There’s an irony at the intersection of specialty coffee and customisation culture: the characteristics that make high-scoring micro-lots extraordinary – their delicate flavour profiles, distinctive terroir expressions, and nuanced acidity – are masked or overwhelmed by the addition of syrups, flavourings, and other ingredients.

“High-scoring coffees and micro-lots are recommended to be drunk by themselves, for the taste experience, to discover why they received those particular scores,” says Silvia Constantin Graham, the owner of First Coffee and the Barista School Romania in Bucharest, Romania.

“Depending on the cupping score, each roaster knows which flavour profiles they are roasting for,” she adds. And a dedicated barista also knows how to prepare the coffee to get the best results.”

Roasters pay higher prices for high-scoring or auction-winning coffees to showcase their exceptional qualities, prompting them to offer these lots as single origin pour overs, for example. However, with the customisation trend growing, these distinguishing qualities are often overshadowed by syrups and additional flavourings. 

This represents not only a financial inefficiency but also a disconnect between the craft-focused values that drive specialty coffee sourcing and the market-driven realities of contemporary café operations.

This tension raises a fundamental strategic question for coffee businesses: do customised beverages require the same coffee quality as drinks served black or with minimal additions?

Base or foundational coffees are important for overall balance and mouthfeel in customised drinks. However, a number of cafés and roasters are responding by developing tiered coffee programmes, utilising approachably priced, consistent specialty coffees (typically scoring 82-85 points) for their flavoured drinks menu, while reserving their higher-scoring, more expensive single origins for straight espressos and manual filter brewing. 

This strategic differentiation enables businesses to allocate their coffee investment effectively while delivering exceptional experiences across all of their menu offerings.

Managing coffee shop price rises

A growing number of cafés are now segmenting their coffee offerings on menus, developing delineated menu sections that help guide customers. They offer the highest-scoring coffees, 90+ micro-lots, and exclusive small-batch offerings as filter coffees, straight espressos, or at most, a splash of milk. These premium experiences come with premium price tags, appropriately reflecting their true cost while creating an elevated “tasting experience” that appeals to specialty coffee enthusiasts.

“At First Coffee, we specifically roast for filter and espresso, and we don’t have drinks with mixed syrups on the menu, but that’s our decision,” Silvia tells me. “A lot of work goes into each coffee, so we want to demonstrate our respect and commitment to quality.”

Meanwhile, their customisable menu options feature well-balanced, consistent coffees at more moderate price points, including blends that provide the necessary structure and “traditional” base flavour notes that hold strong with the addition of syrups and other flavourings – a strategy that both optimises ingredient costs and enhances the final flavour experience.

“When you come up with a menu, you need to think about which types of coffee you need to use, as well as the costs of these coffees and other ingredients to establish the final price, which can be borne by the consumer, but also cover all of your costs and make a profit,” she adds. “There are many variables to consider, but there is always a price option that works for both consumers and the business.”

As the specialty coffee industry navigates challenging economic conditions, adaptation hinges on embracing a nuanced understanding of how quality, value, and the customer experience intersect. The most successful coffee businesses will be those that can balance tradition with innovation, craft with customisation, and exclusivity with accessibility, and adapt their menu offerings and pricing accordingly.

In the more inclusive vision of specialty coffee’s future, there is room for both the US $10 single origin pour over and the US $6 flavoured latte – each respected for what it is, rather than judged for what it’s not.

The question for each café is not whether to embrace this menu diversity, but how to do so while building a business that can weather the storms of an increasingly unpredictable market.

Enjoyed this? Then read our article on how roasters can stand out with RTD coffee.

Photo credits: Vero Coffee House

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