Chartspotting: Coffee graph menu

FlowingData reader Amir sent this along. In lieu of a list of coffee drinks, this place in in East London opted for ingredient breakdowns. I’m guessing there’s a standard menu outside the frame, because otherwise, coffee neophytes (like me) would have no clue what to do. Anyone care to fill in the blanks?

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24 Comments

  • what coffee place in London is this from?

  • Cool chart! As a former barista, I’d have to say the coffee items are (from top to bottom): shot of espresso, brewed coffee, cappuccino, latte, flavored latte, cafe mocha, , and hot chocolate.

  • Would have been significantly easier to read if the colors corresponded with the ingredients.

    • Don’t ever get a job that requires the reading and comprehension of graphs.

      • Ross Marsden April 1, 2013 at 1:22 pm

        What do you mean? There is a key at the top which specifically establishes the meaning of the colors used for the ingredients in the drinks and their approximate relative proportion.

        The biggest *problem* with the graph is the meaning of the scale at the bottom.

  • Ross Marsden March 29, 2013 at 9:12 pm

    Milk is Blue, etc
    What’s wrong with that?
    The key sets up an exhaustive 1 to 1 relationship.
    Makes perfect sense to me.

  • If the bar lengths were in ml (which I don’t think they are) this would be brilliant for me. Usually my coffee of choice is an americano, but in quite a few cafes they add way too much water and I wish I’d ordered an espresso.

  • Ohh, this reminds me of this chart we have in Singapore and Malaysia for ordering coffee: http://limshuning.files.wordpress.com/2011/11/kopi.jpg
    Over here, we say various words after ‘coffee’ to specify the level of coffee, milk and sugar, and even the type of milk we want when ordering coffee. It can be quite confusing as there are many of these words and you can even chain the words together, so this chart really helps to clarify. I usually show it to my foreign friends who are new around here.

  • I haven’t run the numbers, but it looks like all the most expensive drinks contain “Air.” That seemed odd, but the air is foam, which requires the barista’s time to make. That extra 20 seconds could easily be the most expensive ingredient.

  • Ross Marsden March 31, 2013 at 6:48 pm

    Actually the thing is a gimmick, a conversation piece, source of argument, etc

    The price scheme is this:
    Tea: $1
    Coffee, no milk, etc: $1.50
    Everything else: $2

  • 1. Espresso

    2. Americano

    3. Capuccino

    4. Latte

    5. ??

    6. Tea

    7. Hot Chocolate

    • There are 8 drinks listed. So

      1. Espresso
      2. Americano
      3. Capuccino
      4. Latte
      5. ??? — your guess is as good as mine
      6. Mocha
      7. Tea
      8. Hot Chocopate

  • My opinion from a Melbourne POV

    1. Espresso
    2. Long Black (Americano)
    3. Cafe Latte
    4. Flat White
    5. Cappuccino (chocolate indicating the sprinkle on top)
    6. Mocha
    7. Tea
    8. Hot Chocolate

  • I go along with Steven for the very most hints, but would suggest that
    3. is a Latte, and
    4. a Double Latte (with a double shot of Espresso)

    @Steven: The Cappuccino sprinkle perfectly makes sense!

    I first thought the yellow color was some little inside joke, as I read “Teq” as in Tequila. But now I got the point :)

  • Steven is on the money, from a NZ point of view (currently barista in Oregon, USA – where I’m spreading the joy of a good flat white to the Americans).

  • I don’t understand how the proportions of 1. and 2. can work. The tightest ristretto would contain equal amounts of coffee and water by weight. That would be #2. Then what is 1.? Brewed coffee would have a ratio of 6% coffee (grinds) to water, so that is clearly not on the menu.

    I’m assuming that coffee means espresso coffee grinds, not (liquid) espresso. 1. and 2. don’t make sense either way. Unless of course you ignore the length of the bars, which is not generally good mathematical form.

    • Ross Marsden April 3, 2013 at 1:48 pm

      I agree with you Mark. See above where I said “The biggest *problem* with the graph is the meaning of the scale at the bottom.”

      First item: 100 coffee + 30 water
      Second item: 100 coffee +100 water

      What is the scale? Is it %, ml, what?