A cafe owner has claimed there is a very good reason why iced coffees cost more than hot coffees even though theres less liquid inside of them.
Ruby Rule, 25, owns three cafes in Queensland and sells a hot coffee for $6 while serving an iced coffee for $7.50.
Ms Rule admitted customers are paying more to get less and even posted a video spilling the beverages over a table to demonstrate the difference in volume.
The young cafe owner has heard customers constantly complain about the price difference and revealed the hidden costs of producing an iced coffee put a squeeze on the bottom line.
The plastic iced coffee cups cost nearly double the amount for paper-and-polymer ones - which are used in hot coffees.
Commercial ice machines can cost more than $1,000 and plumbing, installation and servicing all further hurt the hip pocket.
One of the biggest nuisances of the increasingly popular iced coffee is the interruption to her workflow.
Making an iced coffee takes a while because you usually have to move around a little more, whereas for the hot coffee the entire thing is made without really having to move off the machine, she told Yahoo.
A cafe owner has claimed there is a very good reason why iced coffees cost more than hot coffees even though theres less liquid inside of them
Ruby Rule, 25, owns three cafes in Queensland and sells a hot coffee for $6 while serving an iced coffee for $7.50
Ms Rule said theres less skill in making an iced coffee because baristas dont have to perfectly texturise the milk.
But during service, Ms Rule said its a lot more disrupting to leave the service bar to go to the ice machine, fill up a bucket and return to the espresso machine.
The next thing that some people might not think about is the fact that when you texturise milk, it expands, she said.
Ms Rule explained some coffees - like a cappuccino - actually required less milk than an iced latte.
The iced latte actually uses a lot more milk even though there is ice in there as well, she said.
When you pour milk into a jug and then texturise it, it gets full of these tiny little air bubbles, it makes the milk fill more volume. Whereas when youre using cold milk, it is what it is.
There was an outpour of appreciation when Ms Rule explained the differences online, putting to rest one of the most confusing price differences in Australia.
Why did the price difference of the coffee cups never occur to me! It all makes so much sense now. Thank you for sharing, one viewer wrote.
The "run out the back to where the ice machine is" is so real. I enjoy making all kinds of coffees but it kind of does throw your work flow off, another added.
Ms Rule claimed she has never actually had a customer complain about the price difference in-store, but had seen many versions of the common complaint online.