Coffee at home: 7p a mug for instant vs 25p for pods and 22.5p for bean-to-cup

A mug of Nescafé Gold Blend costs about 7p to make. A Tassimo Costa Latte costs about 91p. Between the two sit pods, ground coffee and a bean-to-cup machine, and the gap adds up to hundreds of pounds a year if you drink two cups a day. We priced each way of making coffee at home from the sellers' own pages, and added the electricity at Ofgem's current price cap. Prices checked on 8 November 2026.

At a glance

Method	What we priced	Coffee per cup	Kit to buy
Instant	Nescafé Gold Blend 190g, £7.00 at Ocado	6.6p	A kettle you already own
Bean-to-cup	Lavazza Qualità Rossa beans 1kg, £22.50 from Lavazza	15.8p (7g) to 22.5p (10g)	De'Longhi Magnifica Evo, £349.99
Cafetière	Lavazza Crema e Gusto Dolce ground 250g, £5.75 from Lavazza	16.1p (7g) to 23p (10g)	Grind cafetière, £35.00, or any cafetière
Nespresso Original-compatible pods	L'OR Espresso Ristretto 40 pods, £10.00 at Ocado	25p	A Nespresso Original machine (price not checked)
Nespresso Original-compatible pods	Starbucks by Nespresso Blonde Espresso Roast 18 pods, £6.70 at Ocado	37.2p	As above
Tassimo, black coffee	Kenco Americano Smooth Big Pack, 24 drinks, £8.00 from Tassimo	33.3p	Tassimo Happy, £79.99
Tassimo, milky coffee	Costa Latte, 8 drinks, £7.25 from Tassimo	90.6p	As above

The per-cup figures are the pack price divided by the number of cups. For instant we used Nescafé's own serving of one teaspoon (1.8g) in 200ml of water, so a 190g jar makes about 105 mugs. For beans and ground coffee there's no fixed dose, so we show 7g and 10g a cup. Every extra gram of Lavazza beans adds 2.25p, and every extra gram of the ground coffee adds 2.3p.

What the electricity adds

Ofgem's price cap for 1 October to 31 December 2026 puts the average electricity unit rate at 26.32p per kWh for people paying by Direct Debit. Here are the sums.

• Kettle, one mug. Heating 200ml of water from 15°C to 100°C takes 0.2kg × 4.18kJ × 85°C = 71kJ, or about 0.02kWh. At 26.32p that's about 0.5p. Overfill the kettle and you pay more, so boil only what you need.
• Bean-to-cup machine. The Magnifica Evo is rated at 1,450 watts. If it draws full power for one minute to heat up and brew, that's 1.45kW × 1/60 hour = 0.024kWh, or about 0.6p. That's an estimate: real use depends on how long it stays on and how often it rinses itself.

So electricity is under a penny a cup whichever way you go. What you put in the machine is what sets the price.

Worked example: two cups a day for a year

Two cups a day is 730 cups a year. Here's what each method costs in year one, including the kit, and in year two, when you've already got it.

Method	Year one	Year two
Instant (Nescafé Gold Blend)	£52.20	£52.20
Cafetière, 10g a cup, plus a £35 cafetière	£206.69	£171.69
Bean-to-cup, 10g a cup, plus a £349.99 machine	£518.88	£168.89
Bean-to-cup, 7g a cup, plus a £349.99 machine	£469.61	£119.62
L'OR pods (machine not included)	£182.50 plus the machine	£182.50
Tassimo Kenco Americano, plus a £79.99 machine	£323.32	£243.33
Tassimo Costa Latte, plus a £79.99 machine	£741.55	£661.56

The instant and cafetière figures include about 0.5p a cup for the kettle, and the bean-to-cup figures about 0.6p a cup for the machine. The pod figures leave out electricity, which would add a few pounds a year. Milk isn't included for any method except the Costa Latte pods, which have it built in.

The bean-to-cup machine costs £270 more than the Tassimo. At 10g of beans a cup it saves about 10.2p a cup on the Kenco Americano pods, once you take off the electricity. That's roughly 2,650 cups before the machine pays for itself, or about three and a half years at two cups a day. Drink more, or use a smaller dose, and it pays back sooner.

Instant: the cheapest by a long way

At 6.6p a mug, Nescafé Gold Blend is a quarter of the price of the cheapest pod we found. Ocado had the 190g jar at £7.00 under its Price Lock when we checked. If you like instant, there's nothing to buy and nothing to clean.

Cafetière: real coffee for about the same as beans

A cafetière gets you real coffee without a machine. Lavazza's Crema e Gusto Dolce ground coffee is £5.75 for 250g on its own shop, or £23.00 a kilo. At 10g a mug that's 23p, plus half a penny for the kettle. Ground coffee costs a little more per kilo than Lavazza's beans, so the cafetière's edge is the low kit cost, not the coffee.

Bean-to-cup: cheapest real coffee, if you keep it

De'Longhi's own site had the Magnifica Evo Titanium at £349.99, with a 1.8-litre water tank and a built-in milk system. Lavazza Qualità Rossa beans were £22.50 a kilo. From year two, it's the cheapest way we found to make real coffee at home, at 15.8p to 22.5p a cup. You'll need to descale it and clean the milk system, and a repair outside warranty can wipe out years of savings.

Pods: convenient, and the price varies a lot

Nespresso Original-compatible pods vary more than you'd think. L'OR Espresso Ristretto in a 40-pack was 25p a pod at Ocado, while Starbucks by Nespresso Blonde Espresso Roast in an 18-pack was 37.2p. Grind's Christmas Tin of 20 home-compostable Nespresso-compatible pods is £14.95, about 75p a pod, though that includes the tin.

On Tassimo, black coffee is reasonable: the Kenco Americano Smooth Big Pack is £8.00 for 24 drinks, 33.3p each. Tassimo's machines start at £79.99 for the Happy, and Tassimo's site had a Happy with a latte bundle for £41.99 when we checked. Its site also says you get 25% off coffee when you spend £35 or more.

Where the others have the edge

• Instant wins on price and on speed. If you mostly drink coffee with milk and sugar, many people can't tell the difference.
• The cafetière wins on start-up cost for real coffee. You can be brewing for the price of the cafetière and a bag of ground coffee.
• Pods win on convenience and choice of flavours, and there's almost nothing to clean. They suit a household that drinks one or two cups a day.
• Bean-to-cup wins over time for heavy drinkers, and for anyone who wants a proper flat white at home.

Our verdict

If price is all that matters, instant is the clear winner at about 7p a mug. For real coffee, a cafetière is the cheapest way in, and a bean-to-cup machine is the cheapest way to keep going if you drink two or more cups a day and keep it for three years or more. Pods cost the most over time, and milk pods cost the most of all. If you love your pod machine, buy the biggest packs and add your own milk.

FAQs

What's the cheapest way to make real coffee? Over one year, a cafetière, because the kit is cheap. Over three years or more, a bean-to-cup machine, because beans cost less per kilo than ground coffee and far less than pods.

Does a coffee machine use a lot of electricity? No. At the current price cap, heating and brewing a cup costs well under a penny, whichever method you use.

Do compatible pods work in a Nespresso machine? The L'OR, Lavazza and Grind pods we priced are sold as compatible with Nespresso Original machines, not Vertuo machines. Check the pack before you buy.

Why are some pods so much dearer? Brand, pack size and materials. Ten-packs cost more per pod than big packs, and milk drinks use two pods.

Ways to save

New Ocado customers can use code 25OCADO for 25% off a first shop. Ocado's page says it needs a £60 minimum spend, saves up to £20 and has Christmas restrictions. Grind sells home-compostable pods, beans and instant direct.

When you shop through Voucher Magpie, part of the commission the shop pays us goes to the charity or club you pick. You pay the same price.

Sources: Ofgem, energy price cap unit rates, 8 Nov 2026, Ocado, Nescafé Gold Blend, 8 Nov 2026, Ocado, Nespresso-compatible pods, 8 Nov 2026, Nescafé, Gold Blend serving guide, 8 Nov 2026, Lavazza, Qualità Rossa beans, 8 Nov 2026, Lavazza, ground coffee, 8 Nov 2026, De'Longhi, Magnifica Evo Titanium, 8 Nov 2026, Tassimo, coffee pods, 8 Nov 2026, Tassimo, machines, 8 Nov 2026, Grind, 8 Nov 2026

Ad: affiliate links. The codes and deals below link to the stores, and we may earn a commission if you buy, at no cost to you. How we make money.