2bag aik cheong in half cup water, and fill up the rest with warm/frothed milk, sugar as desired

Depends on your budget and what you perceive as your acceptable price:quality ratio

3in1 and the capsule options (nespresso/arristo/dolcegusto) are what I call consistent coffee that don't really need much human effort/adjustments. But it being consistently good or consistently bad is up to the drinker

I would suggest you to start off at least with an Aeropress if you want to get into real coffee appreciation without adding all those sugar/cream/milk. Good quality coffee is just like good quality wine, you don't need to add stuffs to it. But this method would need you to put some effort into it - grind coffee fresh, tune grind settings, figure out coffee:water ratio, how long to brew, water temperature etc but that's what makes it fun right? Haha

But maybe you're asking about improving 3-1 combo. In that case, ignore my post

Coffee beans (MisterCoffee, Antipodean mainly) = RM20 to RM32 per 250gm ... let's say on average RM27 per 250gm

normal double shot (75ml yield) I use 13gm, so that works out to be RM1.40, not inclusive:

- water
- milk
- electricity

hmm... I think the bulk of the cost come from beans.

U get cost associated with
- water
- electricity or gas
- milk
- beans
at 50 cents your beans quality and those who spend 1-2RM quality very different.
with budget of 50 cents what kind of coffee U drink?

high class coffee shops also spends like 2RM on drink, but they have to pay rent, labor and make a profit so got to charge more $$