I Have Been Tracking the Price of an Oat Flat White at Six Crouch End Coffee Shops Across Eight Months, the Curve Tells a Story

Reading: Bohiney | The London Prat

CROUCH END, LONDON — I have, since approximately last August, been keeping a small spreadsheet tracking the price of an oat-milk flat white at six Crouch End coffee shops. The cumulative data tells a story that the Bank of England recent rate-rise statement does not, on every available reading, adequately capture. By Lowri Griffiths.

The Data

August 2025 average: £3.85. November 2025 average: £4.20. February 2026 average: £4.55. April 2026 average: £4.80. The cumulative rise across eight months is approximately 25 percent. The headline UK CPI for the same period is approximately 4 percent. The gap between the two is, on every available analysis, substantively large.

What the Gap Means

The Crouch End oat flat white is not a representative consumer item. But the gap between the headline inflation figure and the lived inflation experienced in any given consumer category is, on close reading, substantively wider than the headline figure suggests. The Office for National Statistics methodology averages across the basket; the lived experience does not.

The MPC rate rise is calibrated to the headline figure. The rate rise lands on the people experiencing the wider lived inflation. The Evening Standard has covered the broader pattern. Read more at my author page.

Pairs well with: NewsThump

SOURCE: https://prat.uk/bank-of-england-raises-rates-again-to-punish-anyone-who-enjoyed-a-sandwich/