Coffee cart margins: what a healthy cart actually earns
Realistic revenue, cost and margin benchmarks for a mobile coffee cart in 2026 — plus the biggest hidden costs.
Coffee looks easy — 15% ingredient cost, $5 a cup. But cart margins are eaten by things people forget: milk waste, wages, machine servicing, generator fuel. Here's what to actually plan for.
Volume ranges
A well-placed cart does 100-250 cups a day midweek and 200-400 at a busy event. Below 60 cups a day is usually a losing site.
Ingredient cost
Coffee, milk, cup and lid — usually 15-22% of the cup price. Alternative milks push this higher; sugar-free syrups eat margin.
Wages
A one-barista cart on a $28/hour rate needs at least 12 cups an hour to cover just that person. On a slow morning that hurts.
Machine and gear
Amortise your cart and machine over five years and it's usually $30-60 a day in equipment cost. Bank that number into your daily minimum.
Where the margin actually comes from
Fast throughput, low milk waste, retention (loyalty), and picking sites with real footfall. Get those four right and coffee is one of the highest-margin mobile food businesses there is.