McDonalds slashes costs of its espresso by a 3rd

McDonald’s has slashed the price of their coffee by a third as it battles high-street rivals for domination in the UK’s caffeine market.

The dramatic price cut means the fast food giant’s coffee now averages around £2 a cup cheaper than many of its competitors.

After launching the prices on Wednesday, a standard white or Americano now only costs £1.39.

Also, fancy favourites such as a latte, cappuccino and flat white are now priced at £1.99.

Speciality coffees will also be cheaper at McDonald’s than at many other competitors with a toffee latte costing £2.29 and the soon-to-be-launched Twix Latte priced at £2.29 to £2.69. depending on size.

The average UK price for a cup of coffee is around £3.40, according to industry group FreshGround.

The price of a cup of coffee has been driven up by a third in the last three years, recent research suggests.

A standard medium latte from a high street chain is now likely to set you back £3.70. In 2021, the same drink at the same café – a branch of Pret in Buckinghamshire – would have cost 30 per cent less at £2.75, according to a study carried out by manufacturer UCC Coffee. 

McDonald’s latest move comes as the battle for market share in the increasingly competitive coffee has heated up in recent months.

This includes both multinational chains such as Costa and Starbucks as well as a growing number of small, trendy independents.

At Starbucks, the price of a large latte is £5.20 when ordered for collection on Uber Eats in London, while Queens of Mayfair, in one of the British capital’s swankiest postcodes, charges an eye-watering £13 for its latte.

Danish juice and coffee brand Joe & the Juice, which has more than 50 branches in London alone, and outlets across the UK including Liverpool, Brighton, Birmingham and Oxford, currently charges £4.70 for a large (16oz) latte with regular milk.

Add in a syrup, say vanilla, and you’ll get charged an additional 50 pence, although unlike many other outlets, you won’t be charged extra for an additional milk.

High-end fashion label Prada’s London coffee shop in Harrods department store, launched in 2023, charges £6.50 for a latte.

Caffe Nero’s is priced at £4.40 for a large latte, the same as Costa Coffee. Pret A Manger and Patisserie Valerie come in slightly cheaper at £4.05.

But this is before any additions are made – for instance, adding coconut and oat milk to your Caffe Nero beverage will set you back up to 50p.

Syrups such as caramel, vanilla and hazelnut at Costa Coffee, meanwhile, will cost up to 55p.

At trendy Black Sheep Coffee, which has more than 80 branches across the UK and is expanding fast both here and overseas, a regular Black Hoof coffee will set you back £5.29.

Add an extra shot (69p), a syrup (69p) and make it almond milk (59p) and your pimped up coffee is a whopping £7.26.

Last month, Pret announced a radical shake-up in its menu after it announced the end of the £30 a month subscription that gave customers five barista-made drinks a day.

There was also a 20 per cent discount off the rest of its food and drink menu. 

Now it will be offering five half-priced drinks a day for £10 a month.

It means subscribers will be paying £205 a month for a £3.90 latte if they were to take advantage of the deal and get the full amount five times a week, compared to the £30 they pay now.

The discount on food will also be culled as it was ‘something we never really got comfortable with’, Pret’s UK managing director Clare Clough said.

‘We know this is a change. But with Club Pret subscription, our coffees, teas, Coolers and iced drinks will continue to be the best offer on the high street, and at a much more accessible price than the £360 a year people have to pay for the current scheme,’ the message read.

The new deal will be priced at £5 a month for existing and new Club Pret subscribers until March 31 2025 when it will double in price.

Ms Clough added that ‘given the majority of our customers are not Club Pret subscribers, our priority now is to focus on better value for everyone’.

Club Pret was first introduced in the autumn of 2020 at £20 a month in a bid to get more people back to the office following the coronavirus lockdown.

It comes after it emerged that Britain’s most expensive coffee using topica beans shipped in from Japan’s ‘island of eternal youth’ is being sold for a whopping £265 a cup.

According to baristas working in the influencer-haven coffee shop Shot, based in Mayfair, the coffee is reportedly ordered ‘two to three times a week’ and is most often ordered by ‘true coffee lovers’.

Maxwell Colonna-Dashwood, a UK barista champion and founder of Colonna Coffee, told the Telegraph that ‘hardly anyone grows coffee in Japan’ because of the difficult climate. He speculated that this may be the reason for the extreme cost of the beans.

Mr Colonna-Dashwood said: ‘Rarity is obviously sought-after in coffee, and most of the “fancy” coffee people drink is all arabica.

‘Typica, which is what is used here, is not the most sought-after variety of arabica – I’ve never seen a typica that expensive before – which suggests the value is coming from the fact that it’s grown in Japan.’ He added that it was the most expensive coffee he had ever seen.

There is also the growing elite coffee market, where the world’s most bougie beans are filtered – using a variety of techniques – and menus are presented like wine lists, with baristas on hand to tell you all about your expensive brew.

A cup brewed using Jamaican Blue Mountain Anaerobic Natural beans – which have notes of ‘chocolate’ and ‘zesty orange’ and boasts ‘bright acidity’ – are served up at Queens of Mayfair for no less than £10.50, and that’s for an espresso shot. A latte costs an eye-watering £13, with a mocha at £15.

And should you want the Bollinger of the coffee world, then look to Asia’s civet cats, who are behind the sought-after Kopi Luwak beans.

In Indonesia and the Philippines, locals pick beans from the faeces of the cats, who eat the ripe coffee berries as part of their diet. They’re then cleaned, roasted and sold to coffee connoisseurs.

A cup, which boasts a ‘deep, mellow flavour, not acidic’ can cost in excess of £60 in restaurants.

However, fears over cruel farming practices – Harrods stopped selling the beans a decade ago – has seen only organically sourced beans now sold, sending the prices spiralling even further.

McDonald’s has rolled out the new prices across its UK and Irish branches though local pricing could vary. McDonald’s sells standard coffee varieties in two sizes – regular and large.

Though it is cheaper, the company says it will still use freshly ground Arabica Beans from Rainforest Alliance Certified Farms and organic milk.

Not only is the fast food giant offering great savings, it is also introducing a host of delicious new offerings, as well as the return of fan favourites – but they won’t be available until September.

As well as new burgers such as the Chicken Big Mac and the Philly Cheese Stack, people will be able to enjoy a new Twix Caramel McFlurry, available for £2.19.