Coffee shop menu templates that respect the bar

Decide what leads: espresso, filter or cold

The first section on the menu is the one you want to sell. A speciality bar leads with espresso and puts the guest roast right underneath. A high-volume commuter shop leads with the four drinks that make up eighty percent of tickets and pushes everything else below the fold.

Keep the size chips, drop the size rows

The single biggest readability win on a coffee menu is refusing to list the same drink twice. If your template forces “Cappuccino S / Cappuccino L” as separate lines, a fourteen-drink list reads as twenty-eight. Sizes belong under the drink as chips.

Give milk surcharges one honest line

• State the oat and almond surcharge once, near the top
• Do not repeat it on every drink — it reads as nickel-and-diming
• Mark the milks you have run out of rather than deleting them

Write tasting notes for guests, not for judges

“Stone fruit, brown sugar, long finish” is useful. A full cupping score is not. Two or three plain words per single-origin is the amount people actually read while queuing.

Then check it from the queue

Stand where the third person in line stands and read your own board. If you cannot price a flat white from there, the type is too small — and that is a template choice, not a design opinion.