Aussie Coffee lover charged $8.18 for a cappuccino on King's Birthday public holiday: 'Did they fly it in from Italy?'

A café customer has been left shocked by the surcharge that was added to his cup of coffee on Monday's public holiday.

David posted to his TikTok account, @thebearded86, that his morning medium almond milk cappuccino from a cafe in East Melbourne cost a whopping $8.18.

The Melbournian told Yahoo he was expecting a public holiday surcharge, but had been slugged with a 15 per cent increase - as well as a fee for using his card. 

'Don't get me wrong I know almond milk costs extra but I think 15 per cent is excessive,' he said.

'The cafe was full! People were outside. And there weren't that many staff. So whilst I acknowledge they need to pay penalty rates I thought it was excessive.'

Aussies were quick to share their disgust at the public holiday surcharge, with one even saying they paid a whopping '$9.50 in Canberra'.

'Did they fly it in from Italy?' one wrote.

'Did they grow the coffee beans in front of you?' another said.

Another gave advice: 'Better coffee at 7 eleven for $2'.  

Other coffee drinkers sided with small business owners. 

'The person that served you gets paid $50+/h today.

'The price might seem a bit much, but I am not sure what the café owners can do about it,' one wrote.

'People forget take away coffee is a luxury not a necessity. For cafes to make a profit they're going to have to raise their prices unfortunately,' another wrote. 

Despite this, David replied: 'I get it. Although it was packed. People everywhere. Outdoors. Footy was also on. They knew how to milk it'. 

To make matters worse, when asked if the coffee was at least a 'ten out of ten', David replied: 'Nope' and called it 'average'.

While surcharges are not a new concept for a public holiday or weekend to help pay for increased staff wages, some Australian businesses are charging up to 20 per cent extra, according to consumer advocate Christopher Zinn.

Despite 10 to 15 per cent being the norm for a surcharge, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) says on their website any surcharge needs to be prominently displayed to customers.

'If they charge such a surcharge, they must include these words on the menu: A surcharge of [percentage] applies on [day or days],' it said.

There is no legal limit in Australia what a business can price a surcharge at and are also allowed to set a fee for customers who use a card - but the card surcharge cannot be more than what it costs the business to process that payment type.