Iced Coffee at Home: CHF 0.60 vs CHF 7 at the Café

A takeaway iced latte costs CHF 6.– to 7.50 in Zurich, Geneva or Basel in summer 2026. Made at home, the same glass — real espresso or cold brew, milk, ice — costs about CHF 0.60. That is a factor of ten, and the habit compounds: four café iced coffees a week over a twenty-week Swiss summer is roughly CHF 560, versus about CHF 48 for the home version. No special machine is required; a CHF 1 litre jar makes cold brew overnight.

What does one iced coffee actually cost to make at home?

The maths is short. A double shot uses about 18 g of coffee. Own-brand beans cost CHF 9–12 per kilo at the discounters, so the coffee itself is CHF 0.16–0.22. Add 2 dl of milk at around CHF 0.30, ice from the freezer at effectively zero, and an optional dash of sirup for a few rappen. Total: CHF 0.50–0.65 per glass with decent beans — under CHF 0.90 even with a premium Swiss brand like Chicco d'Oro.

Compare that with the café: the CHF 7 price covers rent on a lakeside terrace, staff and a plastic cup — all legitimate costs, none of them coffee. The gap between home and café is far wider for iced drinks than for a simple espresso, because iced lattes are milk- and labour-heavy, which is exactly what cafés charge for. The general home-versus-café maths applies year-round; summer just doubles the stakes.

Where are the ingredients cheapest in summer 2026?

Coffee is one of the most heavily promoted categories in Swiss retail: branded beans go on Aktion at Coop, Migros or Denner almost every other week. Buying two or three kilos at 30% off and freezing what you will not use within a month is the single biggest lever. Eini's algorithm tracks these real prices across Coop, Migros, Lidl, Aldi, Denner and Aligro weekly, so the beans land on your grocery list in the right week automatically.

How do you make cold brew without any equipment?

Cold brew is the cheapest and most forgiving method, and it needs nothing you do not own:

1. Grind (or have the shop grind) 60 g of coffee coarsely — about six heaped tablespoons.
2. Stir it into 7 dl of cold tap water in any jar or bottle.
3. Refrigerate 12–18 hours, then strain through a fine sieve or a paper filter.

That yields a concentrate for four to five glasses: pour over ice, top with water or milk 1:1. Cost per glass, all in: about CHF 0.35 black, CHF 0.60 as a latte. The concentrate keeps a week in the fridge, so one Sunday jar covers the working week — the same batch logic that makes homemade ice tea such a reliable summer saver.

What about iced latte and the fancy versions?

Three home recipes, costed per glass with discounter ingredients:

• Classic iced latte (CHF 0.60): double espresso or 1 dl cold-brew concentrate, 2 dl cold milk, ice. Espresso from a moka pot works fine — pour it hot straight over the ice.
• Vanilla iced latte (CHF 0.70): as above plus 1 cl of vanilla sirup. A CHF 3.49 bottle of sirup flavours roughly 50 glasses.
• Oat cold brew (CHF 0.55): cold-brew concentrate with chilled oat drink. The discounter oat drinks at CHF 1.45–1.49 have closed the price gap with milk almost entirely.

If you own a milk frother (or a jar with a lid and thirty seconds of shaking), cold-foam toppings are free. The one thing not worth buying for the home version is ready-to-drink bottled iced coffee: at CHF 2.50–3.50 per 2.5 dl bottle, it costs four to six times the homemade glass and usually carries more sugar.

What does the habit cost over a Swiss summer?

Assume the season runs mid-May to end of September — about 20 weeks — and an iced coffee on four days a week:

• Café takeaway: 80 glasses × CHF 7.– ≈ CHF 560
• Bottled from the shop: 80 × CHF 3.– ≈ CHF 240
• Homemade iced latte: 80 × CHF 0.60 ≈ CHF 48

Switching fully from café to home frees up roughly CHF 500 in one summer — real money in a country where the daily coffee habit is one of the largest invisible budget lines. Even a partial switch (home on workdays, café on Saturdays as an actual treat) saves around CHF 350. If you are still on capsules, the capsules-versus-beans maths adds another layer: beans undercut capsules by half per cup before the iced-drink premium even starts.

Does cheaper coffee mean worse iced coffee?

Less than you would think. Ice and milk mask the fine aromatics that justify premium beans in a hot espresso; what iced drinks need is body and a bit of chocolatey depth, which mid-range and own-brand dark roasts deliver well. Cold brewing is even more forgiving — the long, cold extraction pulls less bitterness out of inexpensive beans than hot brewing does.

A sensible split: keep one bag you love for hot mornings, and run the CHF 8.79 discounter beans for everything over ice. Add both to your smart meal plan's grocery list and let the week's real prices decide where to buy each. Download Eini and the comparison happens before you leave the house.