Burger King is stepping up its game with its new BK Café coffee subscription, reports The Takeout. For just $5 a month, subscribers can enjoy a small, hot, flame-roasted, fresh-brewed cup of coffee every day for a month through the BK mobile app. As you’d expect, a few restrictions apply, including one subscription per guest; the offer is not available in Alaska, Hawaii or Puerto Rico; and no specialty, iced or frappé coffee drinks are included.

If you went to Burger King every morning for a 31-day month, that breaks down to about $0.16 per cup. If you only went to Burger King during the average 20 business days per month, your coffee would cost about $0.25 a cup – a bargain by almost anyone’s standards. Why would Burger King practically give its coffee away? To make stopping there each morning a regular habit which could translate into additional purchases, like a breakfast sandwich or burrito, pancakes and sausage, or French toast sticks.

Here are a few more caveats to the subscription, according to the Burger King subscription terms and conditions:

• Burger King reserves the right to update or change the subscription terms at any time, and it “may” provide notice on the website or via the mobile app with the effective date of any applicable changes.
• If Burger King is going to change rates, it will provide at least 10-days’ notice to subscribers.
• Burger King accepts only major credit cards and debits cards for recurring monthly payments.
• Burger King will not allow Daily Coffee Coupons in the app to be refunded or carried over. If you skip a day, you forfeit that cup of coffee.
• The offer is not valid on delivery orders.
• Subscribers can change or cancel their subscription at any time, by going to “BK Café Subscription Settings” in the mobile app.

It is not clear if this is a one-time promotion or an experiment, but it is clear Burger King wants a piece of Starbucks’ action. Check out this ad which pokes fun at Starbucks’ sizes, names for drink sizes and misspelled customer names. Ouch.

Insider Take:

I am not much of a coffee drinker and, when I do drink coffee, I go for the fancy, flavored coffees with add-ins from Starbucks or from my Keurig at home. I have never tried Burger King’s coffee, but for die-hard coffee drinkers who like a bargain and have a Burger King on the way to work, this is a good deal. We just hope this loss leader is a subscription deal that lasts.