The Ultimate Guide to Writing Coffee Shop Instagram Captions

May 23, 2025

Instagram is one of the most popular social media platforms in the world.

Not only do social media users choose Instagram to catch up with friends and share life updates, but they also see it as the best place to engage with their favorite brands.

~70% of users think the most engaging brand content is posted on Instagram, with 44% saying they “wish brands used Instagram even more often.”

So, as a coffee shop owner or operator, why not give your audience exactly what they want?

In this blog, we’ll help you ramp up your coffee shop’s Instagram game by guiding you through the one thing so many business owners hate doing:

Writing those dang Instagram captions.

But first…

Let’s chat about why coffee shop Instagram captions even matter, shall we?

Why do Instagram captions matter for coffee shops?

Instagram captions matter to coffee shops because, as we said earlier, Instagram matters.

With 2 billion monthly active users, Instagram has a ton of potential for coffee shops looking to advertise their goods, showcase their uniqueness, and engage with their audience…

But an Instagram post is only as good as the algorithm says it is.

According to Adam Mosseri, Head of Instagram, says the app’s algorithm figures out what to show people on their Explore pages by analyzing:

Posts you liked
Posts you saved
Posts you commented on

Here’s how Mosseri describes it:

“Let’s say you’ve recently liked a number of photos from San Francisco’s dumpling chef Cathay Bi (@dumplingclubsf). We then look at who else likes Cathay’s photos, and then what other accounts those people are interested in. Maybe people who like Cathay are also into the SF dim sum spot @dragonbeaux. In that case, the next time you open Explore, we might show you a photo or video from @dragonbeaux.”

So, if your ideal audience is already engaging with other local businesses, there’s a chance your posts could end up on their Explore page, too.

But how do you maximize your chances of securing a spot on coffee lovers’ Explore pages?

You make your content (and captions!) as engaging, relevant, clear, and consistent as possible — and here’s how.

Tired of fighting writer’s block? We’ve got 100 coffee shop Instagram captions to help.

The 5 features of a strong coffee shop Instagram caption

Ever read an Instagram caption and thought “Wow, that was really good?”

It was probably written with these five features in mind.

Hook — Use the first line of your Instagram caption to hook readers in, telling them what your post is about and why they should bother reading the rest of it.
Call-to-action (CTA) — Whether you want readers to visit your website or leave a comment, be clear about what you want with a single, obvious CTA.
Clear, concise language — Use clear, descriptive language that anybody and everybody can understand. Ditch the $5 words, because simple language works just fine. (This one’s the most important to Instagram’s algorithm, by the way!)
A consistent tone of voice (TOV) — Staying consistent with your coffee shop’s TOV is part of any good branding strategy. Instagram captions are no exception!
Keywords and hashtags — Optimize your coffee shop’s posts’ reach by adding relevant keywords and hashtags that help with search engine optimization.

Now, a great coffee shop Instagram caption doesn’t have to include every key feature every single time, and there’s no particular order to include them in, either.

But, remember that Instagram’s algorithm does consider these features when evaluating the platform’s content — and you want to make sure your posts pass the test.

Need some inspiration for your coffee shop Instagram captions? We’ve got you covered.

4 tips for writing coffee shop Instagram captions (with examples)

1. Keep things short and sweet

Instagram gives you lots of space to write in the caption box, but you don’t need to use it all every single time! An engagement experiment by Socialinsider found that “shorter captions (the ones below 30 words) usually lead to a higher engagement rate compared to longer ones,” so keep it short, sweet, and easy to read.

Outpost-Coffee instagram caption

2. Let your coffee shop's personality shine

Instagram is a great way to show off your coffee shop’s personality and vibe in a fun, engaging, way. Customers like it when brands have a good time on socials, with 41% saying they’d “step away from a brand if it doesn’t make them smile or laugh regularly.” Don’t be afraid to add a pun or share a cheeky joke now and again.

3. Test what works best with your audience

I know we just said shorter captions are better… but maybe your audience disagrees! You can (and should) A/B test your coffee shop’s Instagram captions to see what works, like testing out long and short Instagram captions. Let your audience tell you what they prefer with their likes, comments, and shares.

Railtown-Cafe instagram caption

4. Use AI to help with the writing process

Coffee shop owners and operators are constantly pulled in a million directions. You might not have time to write social media captions (and you might not enjoy it, either!). Luckily,

there are tons of ways AI can help out around your coffee shop — and writing your Instagram captions is one of them!

Chat GPT on a mobile phone

Craver's 100 Coffee Shop Instagram Ideas

So, you want to take your coffee shop’s Instagram captions to the next level, but you’re:

Not sure where to start
Can’t find the right words
Stuck staring at the caption spot

We get it!

That’s why we’ve created a list of 100 coffee shop Instagram caption ideas for you to reference and use as inspiration — and it’s free to download below.