Case study: what $1 more on a milk tea is worth to a small boba shop
Our own shop's taro milk tea, before and after: cost per cup, margin by size, and what the change adds up to at 10 cups a day.
By BiteMetrics, built by a boba shop owner4 min read
The short answer
Boba Casa is the shop behind BiteMetrics. Like a lot of owners, we set our first prices by looking at the shops nearby and picking something that felt right. Every milk tea had the same price: $5.50 for a Regular, $6.50 for a Large, and $0.85 for each topping. This is what those prices were really making, one drink at a time.
What one taro milk tea costs us
The cost comes from our own supplier prices: taro powder, jasmine tea, creamer, whole milk, syrup, the cup, sealing film and straw. The amounts are typical for boba; the line-by-line breakdown is in what a cup of taro milk tea costs to make. A Regular costs us $1.55, a Large $2.05.
Before and after
| Cost | Old price | Margin | New price | Margin | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Regular 16 oz | $1.55 | $5.50 | 71.8% | $6.50 | 76.2% |
| Large 20 oz | $2.05 | $6.50 | 68.5% | $8.25 | 75.2% |
At the old prices, we kept $3.95 from a Regular and $4.45 from a Large, before rent, wages and card fees. The Large was the weaker drink: it uses more of everything, but it cost the customer only $1.00 more. It's an easy gap to miss: the jump between sizes was smaller than the jump in cost.
What it means a month
A dollar sounds small. At about 10 taro milk teas a day, it adds up:
| If every cup was a | More per cup | More a month |
|---|---|---|
| Regular 16 oz | $1.00 | $303 |
| Large 20 oz | $1.75 | $531 |
That's one drink. Every milk tea on our menu shares the same prices, so the change reached all of them. Toppings went from $0.85 to $0.95 each at the same time, so every order with pearls or jelly gained a little more. (A month here is 52 weeks ÷ 12, and the rent, wages and card fees don't change with it.)
What we'd tell another owner
- Work out one drink first. Your best seller tells you most of what you need to know, and it takes the guesswork out of the rest.
- Check every size on its own. If Large costs you a lot more to make, it should cost the customer a lot more too.
- Think in a month, not a cup. Multiply the change by what you sell. 25¢ on a topping or $1 on a drink is real money at 10 a day.
- Check again when a supplier price moves. Milk, cups and pearls drift, and a price that was right last year might not be now.
You can do the same check for your best seller with the free calculator below, or sign up and BiteMetrics does it for every drink, size and add-on, including the “a month” number once you tell it roughly what you sell.