Ingredient prices
Milk price per gallon
Whole milk, US city average, per gallon. Small per serving, large in aggregate for any operation with a coffee programme.
Also known as whole milk or dairy.
September 2026 · US city average
$4.31
per gal
- 1 month
- −0.1%
- 3 months
- +4.3%
- 12 months
- +3.6%
2024-01 to 2026-07
What the last 12 months did to a plate
Representative portions and volumes — substitute your own. The point isn't the exact figure, it's that a +3.6% move on one ingredient turns into a specific annual number on a specific dish, and that number is usually larger than it feels.
| Dish | Uses | Cost today | Change per plate | Per year at 640/wk |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Latte (12 oz) | 8 oz | $0.27 | +$0.01 | +$314.08 |
| Cappuccino | 5 oz | $0.17 | +$0.01 | +$64.41 |
| Béchamel (per portion) | 3 oz | $0.10 | +$0.00 | +$25.76 |
| Milkshake | 6 oz | $0.20 | +$0.01 | +$34.97 |
Volumes differ per row — each is a plausible weekly count for that dish. Computed from the BLS series above; your supplier price will differ by region, volume and grade.
What moves this price
- Herd size and yield per cow. Both move slowly, which makes fluid milk one of the steadier items on this list.
- Feed costs. Flow through with a lag, as with every animal protein.
- Class pricing and cheese demand. Fluid milk competes with cheese and butter manufacturing for the same raw supply.
Buying notes
- For a café, milk is the second-largest ingredient cost after coffee and the one most affected by waste — steamed milk left in a pitcher is pure loss and it happens all day.
- Alternative milks cost two to four times as much per gallon. If you don't charge for them, a shifting mix quietly raises your beverage cost with no price change and no obvious cause — this is a genuine and common margin leak.
- Track it per drink rather than per gallon. Cost per beverage is the number that survives a volume change; see usage rate.
This is the national average. Yours is the one that matters.
Marji reads your actual supplier invoices, so you see what you paid — and which of your dishes crossed their margin target because of it. The national number is only useful for telling a market move apart from a vendor move.
Related terms
Pour cost
Food cost percentage for the bar — beverage cost divided by beverage sales.
Usage rate
How much of an item you consume per day or per cover — the input behind every par level and order.
Waste percentage
The share of purchased food that is thrown away rather than sold — spoilage, overproduction, errors and returns.