There is a coffee war brewing in Perth. But will the battle over the bean finally mean Perth loses its dubious distinction as Australia's most expensive coffee capital, or is it just froth for caffeine junkies?
Over the past few months a number of cafes on Perth's culinary landscape started to drop the price of a take-away flat white to as low as $3.
More WA News Videos
- Video duration
- 01:34
What's the real cost of a cup of coffee?
What's the real cost of a cup of coffee?
A Perth cafe owner explains what really goes in to every cup of coffee.
Up Next
How to hide from sharks
- Video duration
- 00:48
- Video duration
- 00:48
How to hide from sharks
How to hide from sharks
There's a number of products on hand that can help keep you safe in the ocean.
Up Next
Man dies after jumping off cliff
- Video duration
- 01:36
- Video duration
- 01:36
Man dies after jumping off cliff
Man dies after jumping off cliff
A man, believed to be in his 30s, has died after jumping off cliffs at Blackwall Reach in Perth's southern suburbs. Vision: Nine News Perth
Up Next
Perth Wildcats rap
- Video duration
- 03:55
- Video duration
- 03:55
Perth Wildcats rap
Perth Wildcats rap
The 1989 Perth Wildcats rap is still a hit with the fans to this day.
Up Next
Perth rubbish truck driver run over in Northbridge
- Video duration
- 01:41
- Video duration
- 01:41
Perth rubbish truck driver run over in ...
Perth rubbish truck driver run over in Northbridge
A garbage truck driver is fighting for life after a crash in Northbridge. The driver of a ute was being followed by police, when they swerved onto the wrong side of Roe Street and hit the truck driver who was standing by his vehicle. Vision: Nine News Perth.
Up Next
Roe 8 protester tackled to the ground by police
- Video duration
- 00:47
- Video duration
- 00:47
Roe 8 protester tackled to the ground by ...
Roe 8 protester tackled to the ground by police
The rally at the Roe 8 building site in Perth's south has ramped up, with protesters storming the fences. Raw Vision.
Up Next
This is a debacle: Hanson
- Video duration
- 01:40
- Video duration
- 01:40
This is a debacle: Hanson
This is a debacle: Hanson
Rod Culleton says he's not bankrupt and shouldn't have been disqualified from the Senate as questions turn to who his replacement will be.
What's the real cost of a cup of coffee?
A Perth cafe owner explains what really goes in to every cup of coffee.
Jujuberry+Co in Mount Hawthorn appeared to fire the first salvo in the caffeine conflict, declaring the "war on Perth's exorbitant coffee starts now" and started selling a cup of Joe for $3.50.
Then Paulette Contessi from Park+Vine in City Beach upped the ante, claiming she was going to sell take away for $3 because the price of coffee in Perth was "ridiculous".
Barista Elody Barugh from Park + Vine in City Beach.
And WAtoday spied cafes at some of the coffee hot spots including Fremantle, Leederville, Mount Hawthorn and along the Perth coast, putting out signs spruiking cheaper coffee.
We then decided to sample coffee from 15 cafes across the metropolitan area (the ones not involved in the bean brawl) to see if the flat white fracas has seen a drop in Perth's notoriously high coffee prices.
And the results won't perk you up.
The Crooked Squire in Midland. Photo: Liz Sheehan
The cost of a regular coffee is around $4.33 which means along with Brisbane, we still pay more for a cuppa than most of our caffeine-addicted countrymen and women.
And a number of Perth baristas have warned bean geeks that the coffee war is nothing more than a cold one, as cafes couldn't sustain selling coffee so cheap.
But Ms Contessi didn't care if she got roasted for selling coffee for $3 because she believed a coffee "revolution" needed to start somewhere.
"We are not dropping our high quality, our beans are sourced from South America and supplied by Australian bean roasters Will & Co and we have the best baristas preparing the perfect cup," she said.
"If we had a 'coffee off' our coffee would win hands down.
"I recently had breakfast at a new northern beach restaurant and it cost $6.25 for a mug of flat white. The worst part was the menu didn't tell you how much over the normal cup size it costs for a larger coffee."
"Perhaps this will be the beginning of a coffee revolution in Perth."
But according to veteran barista Garrett Walsh, java junkies need to think again if they believe a cup d'etat is on the horizon.
Puck owner Garrett Walsh says there will be a cease fire on the coffee war in Perth. Photo: Brendan Foster
The owner of Puck in Palmyra claims selling coffee for $3 is simply not viable for a cafe to stay afloat.
"If you take GST away and work back you're not making money," he told WAtoday.
"So it does not really mean value to the customer because if done properly you would not sell it for $3.
"At the moment Perth has way too many cafes - people just hopping on the band wagon thinking coffee is the answer.
The hospitality stalwart, who was one of the first people in Australia to import what has been dubbed the "Ferrari" of coffee machines, the Slayer Espresso, said $4.50 was the right price to pay for cup.
"If you look at the stages of getting coffee to the cup from the farmer to GST, wages, insurance, super, rent, outgoings, food costs and equipment, I think $4.50 (standard price) is not bad value," he said.
Ironically, according to the cost of living website Numbeo, the price of a coffee (it only looks at the price of a standard cappuccino) in Perth is $4.53.
Brisbane is the next expensive at $4.33, followed by Adelaide, $4.08, Melbourne $3.89 and Sydney $3.78. Remarkably, you can still get a cappuccino in Tasmania for $2.50, which is 81 per cent cheaper than Perth.
So once you look at price of cuppa around Australia, you can see why Perth coffee lovers for years have bemoaned the exorbitant cost of coffee.
And despite economist predicting the price of coffee would drop when the boom busted, it never eventuated.
Georgia Barbera, who runs the Third-Wheel Cafe in South Fremantle with her partner Tom Radford, gives a fascinating insight into wanting to sell cheaper coffee versus the reality of the costs involved.
Georgia Barbera from the Third-Wheel Cafe in South Fremantle. Photo: Brendan Foster
"When we opened we wanted to offer up a great product at an affordable price," she said.
"But we would lose so many shots here and there and you realise it's just not affordable.
"You have a lot of costs that go into it and it wasn't sustainable for us at $3.50.
"I think as far as Perth goes, we are pretty standard and maybe even a little bit on the cheaper side, " Ms Barbera said, who sells a small coffee for $3.80.
Peter Parsons, owner of Higher Grounds in East Perth, said he couldn't sell his coffee for $3.
Peter Parsons from Higher Grounds says he couldn't sell coffee for $3. Photo: Brendan Foster
"Theirs might be cheaper, but theirs is not better," he boasted.
"I walked through Fremantle recently and can't believe how many cafes there are and while it's awesome, it's a bubble and it's not sustainable.
"I could either use worse milk, as we source our milk from a small dairy down south and we try to use environmentally friendly products, so everything we use is recyclable and biodegradable.
"We pay extra for every cup and every lid because we don't want to leave a massive pile of waste.
"We believe what we sell is worth the price."
Mr Parsons said most coffee drinkers were "acclimatised" to paying extra for a cuppa even if they didn't know why.
"Our current blends come from Brazil, Guatemala and El Salvador, which are not exactly economic powerhouses," he said.
"It's ethical because they create direct trade to the farmer but also we want to make the best coffee so we just can't pick one bean and use it all the time."
Despite the barista bashing, Ms Contessi said the $3 coffee was not a flash in the pan.
Can $3 coffees deliver the same quality?
"We will be doing it indefinitely," she laughed.
"It's just one of the ways we get an edge on our competitors."
6 comments
New User? Sign up