I tried London’s £265 coffee to see if it was worth the eye-watering price tag – and was left disappointed

A popular food reviewer forked out a whopping £265 to try the UK’s most expensive coffee – but he wasn’t overly impressed. 

Carmie Sellitto visited Shot in Mayfair where coffee lovers, who have a few hundred pounds to spare, can order an espresso, macchiato, flat white, americano, cappuccino or latte using topica beans shipped in from Japan’s ‘island of eternal youth’. 

The 26-year-old was sorely disappointed by his ‘weird’ experience sampling the high-end iced latte and rated it a low five out of 10 due to the ‘cheap’ ice cubes diluting the coffee. 

Viewers were shocked at the eye-watering price tag and dubbed the boujee beverage ‘crazy’ and ‘wasteful’.

Carmie had his £265 latte served to him in a tall glass with a gold straw by a gloved waiter and was sceptical of the price before he had even taken his first sip.

‘Apparently they have to wear these specific kinds of gloves when serving this coffee because it’s so expensive,’ he said in a TikTok video. 

‘I have never experienced anything like this. It just looked like a normal iced latte, but at least the straw was made out of gold. I think I’ve seriously wasted my money here.’

The coffee was described as having a ‘bright acidity and fruity, juicy notes’ on Shot’s menu and Carmie was taken aback by the flavours on his first sip. 

Carmie Sellitto visited Shot in Mayfair to try the UK’s most expensive coffee that sets customers back £265 – and he wasn’t impressed

Viewers were shocked at the eye-watering price tag and dubbed the boujee beverage ‘crazy’ and ‘wasteful’

‘The amount of flavour I had going on in my mouth right now really caught me off guard. I have never tried something like this before,’ he said. 

‘I got goosebumps – it tasted crazy, it didn’t even taste like coffee, it tasted like some sort of fruit.’

However, remembering the price of the coffee started to mar Carmie’s experience then he said the ice started to dilute the flavour. 

‘Then it hit me, I actually broke after this. Each sip I was taking was probably £25,’ he said.

‘Considering the coffee was so expensive, the ice just seemed cheap and it was melting so quick it kind of ruined the coffee,

‘So, I did the right thing and started downing my drink before it started tasting like tap water.’

Carmie said trying Britain’s dearest coffee was one of the weirdest experiences he’s ever had in his life. 

He said he especially ‘didn’t feel good’ after being hit with the £270.70 bill which included the latte and a service fee.  

‘I’m going to rate the coffee a five out of ten,’ he said. 

Carmie had his £265 latte served to him in a tall glass with a gold straw by a gloved waiter and was sceptical of the price before he had even taken his first sip

Carmie was put off the boujee drinks by the ‘cheap’ ice cubes he said diluted the ‘bright acidity and fruity, juicy notes’ of the coffee

 The clip caused a stir among Carmie’s followers online with one asking: ‘How do they get away with this?’

‘That’s crazzzzzy, you could fly to Italy and have coffee there and money in your pocket for that,’ another said. 

‘For £265 coffee I’d assume the caffeine is top tier and you’re wide awake for months?’ joked a third. 

One user wrote: ‘£270?? I’m taking the cup, straw, and chair home’ and someone agreed: ‘For £270 I better get a coffee machine as well’. 

‘I hope you’re able to poop gold after drinking a coffee that expensive,’ another laughed.  

‘That’s my car insurance for the year,’ a commenter added. 

‘No coffee is worth that much. Even if it were to be the rarest coffee, it is a crime to dilute it with water and milk. So double no,’ someone said. 

The coffee is made from typica beans, a higher quality version of the arabica beans, and have been shipped in from the Nakayama estate based on the Okinawa Island in Japan. 

At Shot, the high priced beverage can be made into any form of coffee found in a high-street cafe. Ordering a 1kg bag of the special beans used to the UK will set back baristas £1,480

Ordering a one kilogram bag of the special beans from the estate to the UK will set back ammeter baristas £1,480 – with delivery cost not included – suggesting there is a mark-up on the cup served in London.

At Shot, the high priced beverage can be made into any form of coffee that would be found in a high street coffee shop. It is available as an espresso, macchiato, flat white, americano, cappuccino or latte. 

According to baristas working in the influencer-haven, the coffee is reportedly ordered ‘two to three times a week’ and is most often ordered by ‘true coffee lovers’.

Maxwell Colonna-Dashwood, a UK barista champion and founder of Colonna Coffee, told the Telegraph that ‘hardly anyone grows coffee in Japan’ because of the difficult climate.

He speculated that this may be the reason for the extreme cost of the beans.

Mr Colonna-Dashwood told the paper: ‘Rarity is obviously sought-after in coffee, and most of the ‘fancy’ coffee people drink is all arabica. 

‘Typica, which is what is used here, is not the most sought-after variety of arabica – I’ve never seen a typica that expensive before – which suggests the value is coming from the fact that it’s grown in Japan.’

He added that it was the most expensive coffee he had ever seen, explaining that these expensive collector item coffees are usually sold in bags rather than for individual establishments. 

The price of a cup of coffee has been driven up by a third in three years, research has shown

Pret sells a substantial number of coffees through its Club Pret subscription, which costs £30

And Pret isn’t the only one, with there being similar increases at competitors. File photo

Shot’s coffee has exceed the price of the Queen of Mayfair, which previously declared to have ‘the most expensive cup of coffee in the UK‘.

It was served for £50 – more than a fifth of the price of Shot’s coffee – and was made from the Cup of Excellence from Ethiopia.

The unveiling of Shot’s coffee comes as the average person is grappling the rocketing prices on high street chains.

Prices have driven up by a third in the past three years – attributed to rising rents and supplier costs.

A medium latte at the main big coffee chains has risen by up to 30 per cent from 2021 to the beginning of this year.

Research by manufacturer UCC Coffee found that the price of a medium latte at Pret in Buckinghamshire cost £2.75, but cost £3.60 at the beginning of 2024 – with the current price being £3.70. 

In Starbucks, the same drink in the same county cost £4 and £3.90 in Costa. 

The increase of bean prices is said to be due to climate change in countries like Brazil and Ethiopia.

Coffee farmers in Colombia’s Sierra Nevada mountain range say warming temperatures are forcing them to plant their crops on higher ground.

Meanwhile increasingly unpredictable rainfall cycles are affecting growth and harvesting logistics.

The region used to be free of coffee plant diseases but farmers say climate change means their plants are increasingly vulnerable to rust, brown eye spot or borer insects, further hitting their yields.

Production in the area has shrunk by 35 per cent in the last five years, according to the Latin American and Caribbean Fairtrade Network (CLAC).