On coffee and milk (well froth). I thought these were zero-vat?!

I bloody told them this and they shrugged.

I may be wrong but not all food is VAT free, plus commodity prices have increased, plus it’s a good excuse …+10p on a cup of froth at my local in-work Costa!

I’m off for a brew!

It’s a luxury not a necessity so you pay vat.

I was under the impression coffee and milk are zero-VAT. Coffee shops can charge you more for a beverage to drink in rather than take out but thats a different matter. Strikes me as a stealth-increase.

Hora, get yourself an Espresso machine (or a decent stove top) and a thermal mug. Spent £200 on a Gaggia Classic
3 years ago, get used about 4 times a day, paid for itself at least 4 times over, best coffee based decision I made

hora under the wrong impression. There’s a first time for everything.

If you’re that unhappy, don’t go there, don’t buy the coffee. You do have the freedom to choose.

How can it be a stealth increase when the price has risen? Did they steal it out of your purse when you weren’t looking?

coffee beans and milk are zero rated.
Normally when you do something with the ingredients ie make a drink, heat food etc, it becomes subject to vat.

And what are these ‘stealth increases’ anyway?

I was under the impression coffee and milk are zero-VAT

They are if you buy them and make the coffee yourself, if you pay for the luxury of having a retailer doing that for you then you pay VAT.

Hora in poncy coffee shop price increase shocker

<shrugs>

I used to have a Classic- bloody broke due to over use.

I was thinking that this morning, instead of going to the coffee shop every morning just sit in and watch BBC news with my stunning home brew

Cheapest online so far is £225 – if anyone knows of one going for less/discount codes etc 🙂

Coffee shops are one of the biggest rip offs going, but we’re all guilty of funding the swines. After being stuck in traffic for aeons on the M6 my willpower dissolved and i dived into Knutsford or sandbach, i forget which hell-hole for a quick takeaway brew. £2.69 for a medium black coffee to which i was asked “would you like an extra shot in it for 50p?” I declined and back on the road i realised that £2.69 might get you something black and hot (by the way, what do Costa put in their “coffee” that makes it stay so hot for so long?) but if you actually want to taste it, well, come on now, cough up. It’s a p**s take but by going there i’m as guilty as anyone else.

Hora, get yourself an Espresso machine

That’ll be really handy when he’s wandering around the Trafford centre and fancies a cup.

^^^^ 😆 thought exactly the same when i read it

Coffee shops can charge you more for a beverage to drink in rather than take out but thats a different matter

No, they have to charge you more.

but we’re all guilty of funding the swines.

Speak for yourself, I don’t drink tea or coffee, and after 53 years, don’t intend to start any time soon.

Dibbs, are you a Moomin?

I eat raw coffee. With a spoon. Then I drink warm water out of the tap for free from work and jiggle around so it all mixes in my tummy.

It costs less than £2.69.

People moan about paying £1.30 a litre for diesel but then pay £2.69 for a cup of flavoured hot water 😆

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Gaggia-Classic-Espresso-Machine-/280611363314?pt=Coffee_Machines_Makers&hash=item4155bd99f2

I was thinking that this morning, instead of going to the coffee shop every morning just sit in and watch BBC news with my stunning home brew

suggest you take a quick look at the “BBC Breakfast” and “Zane Lowe saviour of R1 Breakfast show” threads before you make any rash decisions.

How much has it gone up by – coffee shops i drink in haven’t increased prices any. Personally I’m happy to pay for decent coffee, as its one of the few “luxuries” i indulge in.

However, when i was in paris in March, their equivalent of a latte was a minimum of £5, and the most I paid was £7.50. Worst thing is that it wasn’t even lovely coffee…

Can a gaggia produce the same standard of coffee as a decent coffee shop (talking proper shop here, not costa/starbucks rubbish) and what do you use to heat the milk?

People moan about paying £1.30 a litre for diesel but then pay £2.69 for a cup of flavoured hot water

Couldn’t agree more. You can get a bag of Taylors, or anything similar for £2.30-£3.00 ish which makes what…15-20 cups yet people still pay ££’s for it in Starf**ks etc. 🙄

its about convenience, how are so many people missing this 😆

starbucks also sell bags of coffee, for less than you pay for a grande latte, BUT YOU CANNOT BREW THE **** THINGS WHILE YOUR OUT AND ABOUT !!

My morning coffee went up by 20% this morning. Sharks.

Medium Black Americano from Starbucks up from 1.90 to 2.00. No milk involved so 10p on a coffee, almost double the VAT increase.

Bit of profiteering going on here methinks.

starbucks also sell bags of coffee, for less than you pay for a grande latte, BUT YOU CANNOT BREW THE **** THINGS WHILE YOUR OUT AND ABOUT !!

* other less scottish flasks are available

People moan about paying £1.30 a litre for diesel but then pay £2.69 for a cup of flavoured hot water

I think if the litre of diesel was served to you in a cup, at a table on a the high street, and came with a nice little lump of fudge on the saucer it might cost a bit more than £1.30.

Is it profiteering or just using the start of the year as a reasonable time to make an annual increase to account for inflation of which as I understand it, food inflation is higher than standard?

Food inflation is very high at the minute. Its is mostly driven by commodities but there is a feeling that the big brands are also trying to establish new price points, for instance McCoys crisps are up 16%, Mars confectionary 9%.

There might be the odd case of hiding increases in the VAT rise but most businesses are facing the kind of cost increases that you just can’t absorb and they are having to pass them on, even in a price-sensitive market. This is the kind of thing that could lead to a double-dip.

Coffee – should be reserved for after meals, drunk black, preferrably espresso and ideally no sugar. If you are going to drink something that tastes like dirt at least drink a small stongly flavoured version of it, not a pot of p!ss warm milkly rubbish!

🙂

Santa bought me a Gaggia Classic for Xmas, and it has hardly been off, its an excellent piece of kit, and produces the most gorgeous Crema.

I have one question though, when making an Americano, should I pour the Espresso shot into a cup and then top up with hot water, or just put a bigger cup under the outlet and keep filling the cup using the ever weakening Espresso?

How do you think the Coffee and Milk get to the Starbucks?

They get delivered. By a lorry. It uses diesel. A lot.

Diesel attracts VAT increase + an increase in fuel duty.

Doubt the maths justify a 10p increase in a cup of coffee but prices will rise to maintain a retailers margin.

Chris, you took the words out of my mouth!

Transportation for the food industry has increased a lot! Luckily, food is something you can’t go without, so I’m still in a job.

All this talk of Gaggia Classic’s… Tempting…

Was this thread prompted by Ed Milliband on TV, telling us how the VAT increase was disproportionately unfair on “poor people”, citing the increase in a cup of coffee from your local chain provider??

Personally, as someone who doesn’t fall into the category of “poor”, I rarely afford myself the luxury of this sort of indulgence. The attrition of your funds over time if you frequent these places on a daily basis is considerable. Only an idiot would flush away money on such things if they had a limited income!

I find it bizarre that the Labour leader can equate expensive coffee shops with the NEEDS of “poor people”. Just another example of left wingers not having any ability for rational thought or any commercial sense!

Our country needs a wake up call on personal expenditure (£1.4trillion of personal debt in the UK at present).

The solution is simple, but it has been branded uncool to be realistic about money; you cut your cloth rather than adopt a stance of instant debt incurring self gratification (VAT increase or No VAT increase)

Just shows how out of touch politicians really are and that people need to wake up and….. no I won’t say it! 😆 regarding how they manage their means.

@Dibbs, in my defence I’d been on the M6 for rather too long and that road does funny things to a man, i’m not proud of it but i was in need of caffeine. Still was after that lame excuse for a cuppa… 🙂
And as for us all being “guilty of funding the swines” i was only referring to those of us (me) mug enough to buy their stuff in the first place… 😳

Do people really drink coffee with milk?
Double espresso and a glass of water does the job just fine.

No, they have to charge you more.

They could choose to charge you exactly the same, but they’d have to give 1/6 of what you pay to drink in to the VAT man.

Same as when you see a car advertised as ‘pay no VAT’. You do pay VAT, but they manipulate the price they charge such that the resultant price+VAT is the same as the original price.

People moan about paying £1.30 a litre for diesel but then pay £2.69 for a cup of flavoured hot water

You’ve obviously never bought printer ink. The only thing more expensive per ml is unicorn sperm.