Yahoo Finance Where to find the cheapest coffee around the world
You might think the price of a cup of coffee in Toronto is ridiculous, but at $3.15, it’s actually only the 50th most expensive city in the world for buying a tall Starbucks latte.
A new report by Finder looked at prices in 76 places around the world, and converted them to U.S. dollars. It found Turkey sells the cheapest cup of joe at only $1.78, followed by Egypt at $2.57, and Colombia at $2.69.
Denmark is the most expensive at $6.05, followed by Switzerland at $7.83, and Finland at $7.12.
Beyond what you pay, coffee prices can tell you a lot about a country’s economy.
“We should expect coffee prices to be higher in wealthier countries and lower in poorer countries since there are a lot of factors impacting the cost of goods and services, including the local cost of raw materials, production and labour costs, taxes, tariffs and retailer pricing strategies,” said the report.
In most cases, countries with a higher GDP have higher-priced coffee.
“You can see the correlation between a cheap tall latte and a weaker GDP in countries like Turkey, Egypt, Colombia and Argentina.”
But as the report points out, there are outliers.
“In Denmark, for example, a coffee costs USD$6.05, whereas the expected coffee cost based on the country’s GDP of over USD$60,000 per capita is USD$4.20, meaning the coffee is 44% more expensive than it should be based on GDP, and Denmark’s currency is undervalued by 44%,” said the report.
“In Monaco, the cost of a tall latte is cheaper than you might expect given its strong GDP.”
Finder collected the data by asking individuals in nearly every country that Starbucks does business in to buy a tall latte from a location in their city. They were required to send three pictures, including one with the coffee, the receipt, and the menu.
Jessy Bains is a senior reporter at Yahoo Finance Canada. Follow him on Twitter @jessysbains
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