Your daily coffee is adding up: 5 home alternatives we put to the test

For many Australians, grabbing a coffee has long been one of those small daily pleasures that barely required a second thought. These days, however, the price of that morning flat white is becoming increasingly difficult to ignore.

The average flat white in Australia now costs around $5, according to Australian coffee price tracker Small Flat White, which collects pricing data from thousands of cafés around the country. A large flat white averages $6.13, while choosing alternative milk adds an average of 81 cents to the price.

It might not sound like an enormous expense in isolation, but even one $5 coffee every day adds up to more than $1,800 over a year. If you’re regularly paying $6 for a larger coffee, you’re looking at almost $2,200.

For plenty of coffee drinkers, that makes the daily café visit harder to justify. Instead, coffee out is increasingly becoming something to enjoy while catching up with friends, heading out for breakfast or treating yourself on the weekend, rather than an automatic part of every morning.

The good news is that making coffee at home has also come a long way. You don’t necessarily need an enormous espresso machine taking over the kitchen bench, nor do you have to resign yourself to a disappointing cup of instant.

We’ve tried and tested a range of home coffee options, from instant coffee and pods to an espresso machine, to find some of the products worth considering if you’re trying to cut down on café coffees without sacrificing a good brew.

AeroPress Coffee Maker Premium – $299

If you like your coffee strong and full of flavour but don’t necessarily want a traditional espresso machine sitting permanently on the kitchen bench, the AeroPress Premium is an impressive option. It takes a little getting used to. We found it slightly fiddly the first few times and there are a few pieces to wash up afterwards, but once you’ve made a couple of coffees the process becomes surprisingly easy. More importantly, it makes a delicious cup of coffee. We found the flavour strong and deep, which is exactly what we were looking for, and you can adjust the way you make it depending on how you prefer your coffee. At $299, it’s certainly an investment compared with a standard plunger or basic coffee maker, but it could appeal to someone who enjoys the process of making coffee and wants something that doesn’t take up the space of a full espresso machine.

ONA Instant Coffee Maple – $16.50

If the words ‘instant coffee’ immediately make you think of the jar that’s been sitting in the back of the cupboard for three years, this might change your mind. ONA’s Maple instant coffee comes in seven individual sachets and has creamy, almond and toffee flavour notes. It’s designed to be enjoyed either black or with milk. As far as instant coffee goes, this is the best of the best that we’ve tried. It’s smooth, delicious and, importantly, doesn’t feel like you’re drinking instant coffee. At $16.50 for seven sachets, it’s more expensive than traditional supermarket instant coffee, but it’s aimed at a very different coffee drinker. If you’re trying to replace a café coffee rather than a teaspoon of instant from a jar, it makes much more sense.

L’OR Coffee Pods – from $8.70

For anyone who already owns a compatible pod machine, capsules are probably one of the easiest ways to replace at least some of those café visits. The biggest advantage is simplicity. Put in a capsule, press a button and you’ve got coffee within minutes without having to learn how to grind beans, tamp coffee or master an espresso machine. We tend to prefer a stronger coffee and have found the stronger L’OR varieties particularly good. They produce a full-flavoured coffee from a pod machine and there are enough different strengths and blends available to experiment until you find one that suits you. They’re also readily available at supermarkets, which is a major plus.  If convenience is your priority, pods remain very hard to beat.

Campos Liquid Coffee Sachets – $9.50

These are particularly good if your café weakness isn’t a steaming flat white but an iced coffee. Campos Liquid Coffee Sachets contain coffee concentrate rather than instant coffee granules. The vanilla variety costs $9.50 for a box of eight 20ml sachets and can be served hot or cold with your choice of milk or water. Our preferred method couldn’t be much easier: pour a sachet over ice, add milk and you’re done. It tastes like a proper iced coffee without having to brew espresso, cool it down and then assemble your drink. They’re also handy for taking to work, travelling or keeping in your bag because you don’t need any coffee-making equipment. The regular liquid coffee sachets are similarly designed to simply rip, pour and combine with milk or water. For anyone who regularly finds themselves buying an iced coffee while they’re out, this is a particularly easy café habit to recreate at home.

Cuisinart Slim Espresso Machine – $299

If you’ve decided you’re ready to move beyond instant coffee and pods and start making your own espresso-style coffees, the Cuisinart Slim Espresso Machine is a good entry point. It gives you the opportunity to start learning how to make the coffees you normally order when you’re out without immediately spending a small fortune on one of the more elaborate home coffee set-ups. We also like that it’s slim. Kitchen bench space is valuable and not everyone wants their coffee machine to become the biggest appliance in the room. There’s naturally more involved than pressing a button on a pod machine, but that’s also part of the appeal. You can experiment with your coffee and start perfecting the flat white, latte or cappuccino you’d normally order from your local café. At $299, the initial outlay is equivalent to roughly 60 $5 café coffees. You’ll obviously still need to buy coffee and milk, so it’s not quite as simple as saying the machine has paid for itself after 60 cups, but for someone buying coffee out most days, it’s easy to see how making more of them at home could cut the annual coffee bill.