You hand over five dollars for a latte, yet the coffee beans inside it cost the café only about 35 cents, and the farmer who grew them might see about a dime. This animated explainer slices a typical café latte into its real costs: wages (usually the biggest slice), rent and the building, the espresso machine and power, milk, the cup and lid, the beans, card fees, taxes, waste and the café's thin profit. Then it follows the beans back through the roaster, the importer, the ship and the exporter to the farm.

Chapters:

0:00 Intro

0:19 Why $5?

1:13 The People

2:02 The Room

2:53 The Machine

3:44 Inside the Cup

4:37 The Invisible Slices

5:35 What the Café Keeps

6:39 Follow the Beans

7:48 The Farmer's Cents

9:00 The Whole Cup

• About 10 minutes, 1080p at 60 fps, with an English AI voiceover

• Original synthesized music and sound effects, mixed to -14 LUFS

• Original vector animation in a flat, neon explainer style

• Fact-checked against industry analyses of café costs, 2025 coffee market records and research on farmers' share of a cup. Every figure is a rough range that varies by country, city and café

• Education and entertainment only, not financial advice

The surprising answer: the cheapest part of your coffee is the coffee.