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Drinks
Coffee, cocktails, tea, kombucha, sparkling water — what's actually cheaper at home and what's a wash. Most pieces here have a sister-site recipe to back them up.
Drinks are where the markup math gets stark. A coffee shop latte runs $6; the same drink at home costs about $1.50 once you've amortized the gear. A bar cocktail is $14; the same drink at home, with bottles spread across many pours, is $3. The pieces here run that math honestly — including the hour of work, the equipment payback, and the cases where it isn't worth it. Most articles here have a sister-site recipe on letsmake.cafe or letsmake.bar so the cost article and the how-to live next to each other.
Tea worth buying loose-leaf
About $150 a year for a daily tea drinker — that's the difference between bagged grocery-store tea and loose-leaf that you steep multiple times. The math only works if you're actually drinking tea every day, and only for certain types.
Is it cheaper to make cocktails at home? The math.
A cocktail at a bar runs $14–18. The same drink at home, made with bottles you've amortized across 30 or so pours, runs about $3. A two-cocktail-a-week habit moved home saves about $900 a year — and you can drink better while you're at it.
How much you save by making coffee at home
Two daily lattes from a coffee shop run about $1,800 a year. The same drinks at home, with decent beans and a basic espresso setup, run about $600 — a $1,200 swing. Here is the math, including how fast the gear pays itself back.
Cold brew concentrate at home
A 32 oz bottle of cold brew concentrate runs about $9 at the grocery store. The same volume from $14-a-pound beans, made overnight in a mason jar, runs about $1.80. A summer-long iced coffee habit moved home saves about $350 a year, with no equipment beyond a jar and a strainer.
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Cocktail party for 8 for under $80
Going out with eight friends to a bar costs about $400 between drinks, food, and tip. Hosting the same evening at home — one batched signature cocktail, two snacks, three bottles of backup — costs under $80. Even hosting once a quarter, that's $320 a year.
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