Illinois Cafe Responds After Customer Claims She Was Charged $16 For A Latte

We know coffee isn't getting cheaper but dang.

There's long been the argument that us millennials could afford a house if we'd skip the iced coffees (which is not true by the way). And these days, tipping culture has confused a lot of folks trying to get coffee to-go or at a drive-thru.

Enter a $16 latte in Chicago.

It doesn't take much to find the drama involving Sakrid Coffee in Lincoln Park over on TikTok but here's the video that started it all (should probably put a language warning here):

@dear.arabella they can’t keep getting away with it #chicago #food #cheflife ♬ Clouds - Luke Faulkner

Listen, if you get coffee somewhere you know it's just getting more expensive and if you drink just straight coffee, not even a mocha or latte, even that price is going up.

Now, Sakrid Coffee is speaking out about it. Another TikTok by a user named Lucy showed a screenshot of a comment from the coffee shop that read "Looks like we double charged you! We refunded you for your order. So sorry for the inconvenience!"

Sakrid Coffee told PEOPLE:

[Sakrid Coffee] has no record of ever selling coffee that expensive to anyone...[It's] a consistency failure on our side that has caused customer dissatisfaction...[they're] actively solving it and looking to be transparent...People are concerned. And understandably so. We’re all anxious about rising food costs, about companies taking advantage of us, about the dynamic pricing that we’ve seen at many fast food restaurants. And because of this, outrage sells. So in the same way that influencers capitalize on popular formats to improve audience engagement, it seems people are using outrage towards ridiculous food prices as a way to gain some traction. And I think it’s brilliant. I would too in their situation; it’s easy and effective. But in this case, it’s untrue, unexamined, and it’s unfortunately harming us baristas who are just trying to pay rent.

Sakrid Coffee also said the manager who was moderating comments on their social media is no longer with them.

Manager Isaac clarified it was actually fixed before @dear.arabella's video: "At the end of the day, the overcharge was an incredibly simple mistake that got resolved before the first video was even published."

As of summer 2025, the average cost for a latte in America is $5.60.