Supermarket vs speciality coffee: how big is the price gap?

The gap is real, but smaller per cup than per kilo. Supermarket own-brand beans start at around £13 to £16 per kilo; Lavazza, Taylors of Harrogate and illy sit at about £22 to £32. Half the coffees from UK speciality roasters on Bean Index cost less than £51/kg, and a quarter cost £43/kg or less. The dearest supermarket bags and the cheapest speciality bags meet in the middle.

What do supermarket coffee beans cost per kg?

These are whole-bean coffees we found on the retailers' websites, at the regular shelf price without loyalty card prices or multibuy offers. The price per kg is the one the retailer shows; for Aldi, which shows only the pack price, we divided it ourselves. Supermarket prices change often, so treat the table as a dated snapshot, not a live price.

Supermarket whole-bean coffee, regular shelf price, seen online on 19 Oct 2026

Coffee	Retailer	Pack	Price	Per kg
Aldi Specially Selected Colombian Coffee Beans	Aldi	227 g	£2.99	£13.17 (our calculation)
Tesco Italian Inspired Espresso Coffee Beans	Tesco	1 kg	£14.25	£14.25
Tesco House Blend Coffee Beans	Tesco	227 g	£3.60	£15.86
Sainsbury's Fairtrade House Blend Original Coffee Beans	Sainsbury's	227 g	£3.75	£16.52
Tesco Finest Fairtrade Colombian Supremo Beans	Tesco	227 g	£4.30	£18.94
Sainsbury's Fairtrade Colombian Beans, Taste the Difference	Sainsbury's	227 g	£4.50	£19.82
Lavazza Qualità Rossa Coffee Beans	Tesco, Sainsbury's	1 kg	£22.50	£22.50
Lavazza Qualità Rossa Coffee Beans	Tesco	250 g	£6.25	£25.00
Taylors of Harrogate Rich Italian Roast Coffee Beans	Tesco	200 g	£5.75	£28.75
illy Classico Coffee Beans	Tesco	250 g	£8.00	£32.00
Union Revelation Espresso Wholebean Coffee	Tesco	200 g	£7.50	£37.50
Speciality coffee on Bean Index, median	111 UK roasters	200–350 g	varies	£51

Two things stand out. First, bag size matters as much as brand: the same Lavazza Qualità Rossa costs less per kilo in the 1 kg bag than in the 250 g bag, and own-brand 1 kg bags are among the cheapest beans in the table. Second, the dearest supermarket beans overlap with the cheaper end of speciality coffee: the Union bag, from a London roaster also sold in supermarkets, costs £37.50/kg, next to where the cheapest tenth on Bean Index ends (£36/kg).

What is the difference per cup?

At £15.86/kg, the beans for a 15 g filter cup cost about £0.24. At the speciality median the same cup costs about £0.76, and a double espresso with 18 g about £0.91. Either way it is a fraction of a coffee bought in a café, where VAT is also added; beans you buy to brew at home are zero-rated for VAT.

What do you get for the difference?

• Freshness you can check. Supermarket packs usually show a best-before date rather than a roast date. Many speciality roasters print the roast date or roast to order, so you know how old the coffee is. Whole beans lose aroma week by week after roasting, which you notice most in espresso.
• Traceability. Speciality bags usually name more than the country. On Bean Index, 57% of coffees name a region, 72% the process and 58% the variety. Where a roaster doesn't say, the coffee page says "not stated by the roaster".
• Choice. 1,510 coffees from 111 roasters, from chocolatey blends for milk to fruity single origins for filter.
• A roast for your brew method. Many roasters say whether a coffee is roasted for espresso, filter or both; a supermarket strength number describes intensity, not what the coffee is roasted for.

Is speciality coffee worth it?

That depends on what you like. If you enjoy a dark, bitter-chocolate cup with plenty of milk, a supermarket blend may be exactly right, and there is nothing wrong with that. If you want to taste where a coffee comes from, or you brew filter or espresso at home and care about freshness, the extra pence per cup buy you something you can taste and check. We don't rank coffees or supermarkets, and we don't say which beans are the best; we show what things cost and what the roaster tells you.

If you like a particular supermarket coffee and want something similar from a UK roaster, try the replacement finder. If you mostly drink espresso and want to keep the price down, see affordable espresso beans; for a cafetière, coffee for a cafetière. If you want to try speciality coffee but don't know where to start, read how to choose coffee beans. For the full picture of speciality prices, read how much speciality coffee costs per kg or compare coffee beans from UK roasters directly.

Omni roasts below the median of their group

Moon Roast CoffeeAlresford, UK

Decaf - Colombia Popayán (Roasted on 22nd September)

Colombia, Cauca, 1,500–2,070 m

Washed, Castillo, Caturra

Floral & tea, Chocolate, Nut & caramel

Omni roast

Price per kg £26.22/kg

£5.90 for 225 g, excl. delivery, checked 19 Oct, 12:19

48% below median for Decaf

To roaster

Wogan CoffeeBristol, UK

Colombia Excelso Medellín

Colombia, Antioquia

Process unknown, Castillo, Caturra

Nut & caramel

Omni roast

Price per kg £30.80/kg

£7.70 for 250 g, excl. delivery, checked 19 Oct, 12:37

46% below median for Colombia

To roaster

Wogan CoffeeBristol, UK

Ethiopia, Yirgacheffe Natural, Nensebo Mundayo

Ethiopia, Yirgacheffe, 1,945–2,100 m

Natural, Heirloom

Floral & tea, Citrus, Nut & caramel

Omni roast

Price per kg £36.00/kg

£9.00 for 250 g, excl. delivery, checked 19 Oct, 12:37

42% below median for Natural from Ethiopia

To roaster

Wogan CoffeeBristol, UK

Colombia Finca La Laguna Reserva

Colombia, Cauca

Washed, Castillo, F6

Berries, Chocolate, Nut & caramel

Omni roast

Price per kg £32.52/kg

£8.13 for 250 g, excl. delivery, checked 19 Oct, 12:37

41% below median for Washed from Colombia

To roaster

Poblado CoffiNantlle, UK

Ethiopia - Beshasha

Ethiopia, Agaro, 2,040 m

Natural

No flavour notes found

Omni roast

Price per kg £38.00/kg

£9.50 for 250 g, excl. delivery, checked 19 Oct, 12:26

39% below median for Natural from Ethiopia

To roaster

Wogan CoffeeBristol, UK

Peru Café Femenino

Peru

Natural, Bourbon, Catuai

Berries, Chocolate

Omni roast

Price per kg £34.00/kg

£8.50 for 250 g, excl. delivery, checked 19 Oct, 12:37

37% below median for Natural from Peru

To roaster

All omni roasts by price position

What we don't know

• Supermarket prices after 19 Oct 2026. We don't track supermarkets; the table is a dated snapshot and will go out of date.
• Every supermarket. We looked at Tesco, Sainsbury's and Aldi online. Starbucks whole beans were not listed at Tesco or Sainsbury's when we looked, so they are not in the table.
• Roast dates of supermarket coffee, and how long the beans spent in the warehouse and on the shelf.
• Taste. Price per kg says nothing about whether you will enjoy a coffee.

Sources & method

• Supermarket prices: product listings in the online shops of Tesco (tesco.com), Sainsbury's (sainsburys.co.uk) and Aldi (aldi.co.uk), search "coffee beans", seen on 19 Oct 2026. Regular shelf price, not Clubcard or Nectar prices or multibuy offers; price per kg as shown by the retailer, for Aldi pack price divided by pack weight.
• Per cup: price per kg times grams per cup, divided by a thousand; supermarket example with 15 g.
• Speciality prices: from the roasters' shops, excl. delivery; price per kg from the standard bag, n = 1,370, checked 19 Oct 2026. Details in the methodology.
• Bean Index lists coffees from UK speciality roasters only. It does not list supermarket coffee and is not affiliated with any retailer named here.