Coffee Shop Menu Ideas: How to Build a Café Menu That Sells
A good café menu isn’t the longest one. It’s a short list of drinks your team can make well and fast, with enough variety that every customer finds something. This guide gives you menu ideas grouped the way most cafés build their boards, plus tips on keeping the menu easy to run.
Every drink below links to a recipe or lesson in our Coffee Academy, so your baristas can learn it. Recipes and prices are up to you. Use our menu pricing calculator to cost each one.
Start with the core espresso drinks
TESDA’s Barista NC II training regulations list the standard espresso drinks a barista should be able to make: espresso, Americano, cappuccino, café latte and café mocha, plus iced latte, iced mocha and mocha frappe. These make a sensible core for almost any café.
| Drink | Learn it |
|---|---|
| Espresso | How to dial in espresso |
| Americano | The Americano |
| Cappuccino and latte | Latte vs cappuccino |
| Flat white | Flat white vs latte |
| Mocha | Cappuccino vs mocha |
| Macchiato and cortado | Macchiato and cortado |
Coffee beans for your café
Caffeine Brothers supplies cafés, offices and restaurants with freshly roasted Philippine coffee in 10 kg wholesale boxes from ₱773/kg, with free Metro Manila delivery and a free sample before you commit.
See Wholesale Prices →Add Filipino favourites
Local drinks give your menu personality and are often what customers come back for.
- Spanish latte: a latte sweetened with condensed milk, hot or iced
- Kapeng Barako with muscovado: strong brewed Liberica coffee
- Dalgona coffee: whipped coffee over cold milk
- Coffee jelly: as a drink topping or a dessert
- Egg coffee: an unusual special that gets people talking
Cold drinks for hot days
- Iced latte and iced Americano, made with the same espresso as your hot drinks. See our iced coffee recipes.
- Cold brew, made in batches ahead of service, so it’s fast to serve.
- Blended frappes. TESDA’s standard drinks include a mocha frappe, and a blender lets you add more flavours.
- Affogato, if you also sell ice cream.
Non-coffee options
Groups often include someone who doesn’t drink coffee. A few non-coffee drinks stop them from going elsewhere: hot chocolate, matcha latte, tea, and a fruit drink or two. Matcha and chocolate can use the same steamed milk and the same cups as your lattes. Our guide to matcha vs coffee explains the difference in caffeine.
Add-ons that raise the average order
| Add-on | Why it works |
|---|---|
| Extra shot | No new ingredient, just more of your espresso |
| Flavour syrups | One bottle covers many drinks: vanilla, caramel, hazelnut |
| Plant milk | For customers who avoid dairy. Oat is generally the easiest to steam |
| Bigger size | Same recipe with more milk or ice |
| Pastry or snack pairing | A simple bundle price encourages a second item |
How to keep the menu fast to serve
Our guide to how baristas work faster has more on bar flow, and coffee menu pricing in the Philippines covers how to set prices.
Choosing the coffee for your menu
Most of the menu above runs on one espresso. Choose a blend that tastes good both on its own and with milk, because most café orders are milk drinks. Our guide to coffee drinks explains what’s in each one, and the Café Business Resource Center covers costs and planning. Cafés buying 10 kg or more can see wholesale pricing for our blends, or request a free sample to test with your menu.
More lessons are in the Caffeine Brothers Coffee Academy.
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