“Before You Slate That €3.50 Cup of Tea, Try Opening a Cafe First”

Every few weeks, another comment or photo of a receipt hits social media and the outrage begins: “€3.50 for a cup of tea? Daylight robbery!” Comment sections fill with people piling on, slating and slandering a business they’ve never stepped foot in, condemning a price they’ve never tried to understand.

The loudest voices are often the ones who have never opened their own cafe, never signed a personal guarantee on a lease, never stared down a payroll run with the bank balance flashing red. They see “a cup of tea”. They don’t see what it takes to unlock that door every morning in Ireland and keep the lights on.

Because here’s the truth: that “overpriced” cup of tea is the final, visible outcome of hundreds of invisible decisions, risks and responsibilities. Running a food business in Ireland is daring, brave and so bloody expensive. Before a kettle, boiler is even boiled, that owner is paying rent or a hefty mortgage on a commercial premises. They are paying rates. They’re paying insurance that has skyrocketed in recent years. They’re paying for alarms, licenses, accountants and the software that runs the till. They’re paying for electricity to light and power the space, gas or electric to heat it, water charges to clean it, and all while trying to create a warm, welcoming environment that feels like a second home for their customers.

Then there’s the stock – and this is where people massively underestimate the reality. Food businesses carry a huge amount of cashflow tied up in perishable stock that can go off, be wasted, or be lost overnight if the fridge fails. Tea is not just “a tea bag”. It’s quality tea, milk, sugar, oat milk for the lactose‑free customer, lemon, honey, biscuits or cakes that sit beside it, all ordered, checked, rotated and stored properly. Add to that the cups, teapots, saucers, spoons, takeaway cups and lids, napkins, cleaning chemicals, dishwasher tablets and glasswasher maintenance. Every one of those “little things” is a bill that has to be paid before a single cent of profit can exist.

Now let’s talk about people. A cafe is nothing without staff. Behind that €3.50, there are wages, PRSI, holiday pay, sick pay, training, uniforms, HR support, payroll systems and all the emotional labour that never makes it to a balance sheet. Baristas and servers are on their feet all day, often dealing with relentless pressure, unpredictable rushes and the occasional entitled comment from someone who thinks they know the cost of everything and the value of nothing. The business owner has to schedule, train, retain and support that team while also absorbing the stress of staff shortages, no‑shows and a labour market that is constantly shifting.

And then, after all of that, we finally get to the “simple” cup of tea. The customer comes in, reads the menu, asks questions, decides and places an order. The staff member greets them, explains options, confirms cup or pot, milk, sugar, maybe oat milk, maybe lemon. They enter the order into the till, take and process the payment. They select the right cup or pot, saucer, spoon and tea. They access the hot water, pour it safely to the correct level, allow it to steep or explain how to steep it. They add milk or place it on the side, maybe grab sweeteners or a biscuit, and bring it to the table or the pickup point. Later, someone clears the table, separates waste, scrapes the teabag into compost or general waste, loads the dishwasher, unloads it, stacks cups and pots back into place, wipes the table and resets the area. That’s without counting the quiet, constant work of restocking the tea, rotating the milk, cleaning the urn or kettle, descaling, logging temperatures, and making sure everything is safe and compliant. You’re looking at close to 30 individual touches wrapped around that “overpriced” cup of tea.

The outrage, more often than not, is based on bias and not knowledge. People compare today’s prices to some nostalgic memory of a pot of tea in 1998, or to what it costs to boil the kettle at home, as if those two realities are even remotely comparable.

At home, you’re not covering commercial rent, business rates, multiple insurances, wages, taxes, licenses, waste collection, maintenance and the risk that if it all goes wrong, it’s your house or your savings on the line. A food business doesn’t get to mark up one item in isolation; it’s constantly juggling margins across the whole menu, trying to keep things affordable enough for customers and sustainable enough to survive.

Running a food business in Ireland is not just a job, it’s a public service in many ways. Cafes are community anchors. They are where friends meet, where parents escape for ten minutes of sanity, where older people get their only warm conversation of the day, where remote workers quietly keep the economy ticking over between sips. They support local suppliers, growers, farmers and producers, building a web of economic and social value that ripples far beyond the front door. When a cafe closes, it’s not just a business that disappears – it’s a meeting place, a support system, a tiny ecosystem of jobs and local trade.

So when you see €3.50 on a receipt for a cup of tea and your first reaction is outrage, I’m asking you to pause. Get off the high horse of ignorance and ground yourself in the reality of what that price represents. Look beyond the teabag and the hot water and see the rent, the rates, the lights, the heat, the perishable stock, the wages, the compliance, the risk – and the nearly 30 human touches it takes to get that cup from idea to your table. The next time you feel the urge to post a shaming photo or leave a snide comment, maybe start by asking a question instead: “What does it actually cost to run this place?” Let those of us who have opened, run and fought to keep food businesses alive in Ireland bridge that knowledge gap for you – one “overpriced” cup of tea at a time.

Yours,

Tracie Daly

Food Business Coach

www.traciedaly.com

tracie@traciedaly.com

Ps. Just in case you didn't get a clear enough picture of my point from above of what ACTUALLY goes into a making that 'overpriced' cup of tea, then here is the process:

• Customer enters the cafe

• Customer reads the menu/boards

• Customer decides and places tea order

• Staff greets and confirms tea type and options

• Staff confirms cup or pot, milk, sugar, extras

• Staff enters order into till/POS

• Staff takes and processes payment

• Staff selects cup or pot, saucer and spoon

• Staff selects tea (bag or loose)

• Staff accesses hot water source (kettle/urn/tap)

• Staff pours hot water to appropriate level

• Staff steeps tea or hands to customer to steep

• Staff adds requested milk or accompaniments, or sets them on the side

• Staff moves drink to pickup point or carries to table

• Customer collects tea (if counter service)

• Customer customises with milk/sugar if self‑serve

• Customer consumes tea

• Staff later clears cup, pot and saucer

• Staff separates waste (teabag, compost, recycling, general waste)

• Staff loads dishwasher or wash area

• Staff returns clean crockery to its station

• Staff restocks tea, milk and any disposables as needed

• Staff or management checks and maintains hot water equipment periodically