The cup, lid, straw, napkin and ice in a 16 oz cold drink can cost you close to $0.40. On a $5.50 iced latte that barely shows. On a $2.00 iced tea it is a fifth of the price and most of the cost. So work them out once per size and add them to the cost of every drink.
What goes out with every cup
List everything that leaves the counter with a drink. It is usually this:
- Cup (the exact size: 12, 16, 20 oz)
- Lid (flat or dome; dome lids usually cost more)
- Straw
- Napkin
- Ice
- Carrier or bag for takeaway and delivery
- Sleeve, stirrer or sticker, if you use them
For each piece, divide the pack price by the units in the pack. A sleeve of 1,000 cups at $110 is $0.11 a cup. If your supplier offers several pack sizes, the compare pack sizes per unit tool tells you which one is cheapest per cup.
Ice is bought too
Ice feels free because it is water, but bagged ice has a price, and it melts. The right number uses what you actually serve, not what the bag says.
If you buy a 5 kg bag for $4.00 and serve 4 kg before the rest melts in the ice well, your ice costs 4.00 ÷ 4 = $1.00 a kilo, not $0.80. Weigh the ice in each cup size once and you have the cost.
If you make your own ice with a machine, treat it differently: the machine is a fixed cost and the water and power are small running costs. In that case, count it in your monthly overheads instead of per cup.
Cost per size
Build a table like this once with your own prices. These are example numbers:
| Size | Cup | Lid | Straw and napkin | Ice | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12 oz | $0.09 | $0.04 | $0.04 | $0.12 (120 g) | $0.29 |
| 16 oz | $0.11 | $0.05 | $0.04 | $0.18 (180 g) | $0.38 |
| 20 oz | $0.14 | $0.06 | $0.04 | $0.22 (220 g) | $0.46 |
The paper straw is $0.03 and the napkin $0.01.
One more line: the cups you lose. One gets dropped, a lid will not seal, a drink is made wrong. If one cup in 25 is lost, each drink sold carries 1/24 of a cup and lid. At 16 oz: (0.11 + 0.05) ÷ 24 = $0.01.
Worked example: lemonade, iced tea and an iced latte
You run a small café with a cold drinks menu. You have already costed the liquid in each drink from your recipes (the guide to costing a fresh juice shows how).
House lemonade, 16 oz, $3.50
- Lemons, sugar and water: $0.48
- Cup, lid, straw, napkin and 180 g of ice: $0.38
- Lost cups: $0.01
- Total cost: 0.48 + 0.38 + 0.01 = $0.87
Iced tea, 16 oz, $2.00
- Tea and syrup: $0.15
- Cup, lid, straw, napkin, ice and lost cups: $0.39
- Total cost: $0.54
Iced latte, 16 oz, $5.50
- Espresso and milk: $0.95
- Cup, lid, straw, napkin, ice and lost cups: $0.39
- Total cost: $1.34
| Iced tea $2.00 | Lemonade $3.50 | Iced latte $5.50 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What you thought it cost (liquid only) | $0.15 | $0.48 | $0.95 |
| Real cost | $0.54 | $0.87 | $1.34 |
| Contribution you thought you had | $1.85 | $3.02 | $4.55 |
| Real contribution | $1.46 | $2.63 | $4.16 |
| Cup, ice and the rest as % of price | 19.5% | 11.1% | 7.1% |
In the iced tea, the cup and ice are 0.39 ÷ 0.54 = 72% of the cost. On the lemonade alone, at 60 cups a day for 30 days, 1,800 cups × 0.39 = $702 a month in disposables and ice. If they were not in your cost, that money was coming out of your profit without showing up anywhere.
Prices here are before sales tax. Check your local tax rules for how drinks are taxed where you are.
Why it hits cheap drinks hardest
The cup costs the same whether it holds a $2.00 iced tea or a $6.00 smoothie. The cheaper the drink, the bigger the share the cup takes. Three practical consequences:
- Do not discount the cheap drink without looking at the cup. Dropping the iced tea to $1.50 leaves $0.96 of contribution, and the cup and ice still cost $0.39.
- The small size is not always the smart one. At 12 oz you pay $0.29 for packaging and ice on a drink that sells for less.
- Dine-in glassware changes the maths. Real glasses swap the cup cost for washing and breakage, which belong in overheads.
Takeaway and delivery
Delivery orders add a bag, a carrier and sometimes a seal sticker so nothing spills. Count those separately, only for that channel, because a customer drinking at the counter does not use them. The guide to packaging cost shows how to split them, and the guide to hidden costs covers other small costs that eat margin the same way.
Hot drinks have their own version: paper cup, hot lid, sleeve and stirrer. You will find them in the guide to the cost of a cup of coffee, and the full picture is in the guide to drink costs.
Do it with the calculator
In the food cost calculator, add the cup, lid, straw and ice as ingredients of each drink using the per-unit costs from your table; it returns the real cost per cup and the price for the margin you want.
Frequently asked questions
How do I work out the cost of ice per drink?
Divide what you pay for a bag by the kilos you actually serve before it melts, then multiply by the grams in one cup. If a 5 kg bag at $4.00 gives you 4 kg of usable ice, ice costs $1.00 a kilo and 180 g is $0.18.
Does ice save me money on the drink?
It takes up space in the cup, so you pour less drink. That only helps if the ice costs less than the drink it replaces and you count it in the cost. Weigh it once and compare.
Should I count cups that get dropped or spoiled?
Yes. If one cup in 25 is lost, every drink you sell carries a share of it. Divide the cost of a cup and lid by 24 and add it.
Does a bigger cup always make more money?
Not automatically. The cup, lid and ice cost more as size goes up, and so does the drink. Cost each size separately before deciding the price step between them.