Research conducted by American finance advisor SavingSpot has examined the average cost of consuming coffee in 104 countries and found that South Korea was the most expensive, with the average price of coffee costing US$7.77.
Iran was found to be the cheapest country, with an average price of $US0.46 per cup of coffee.
The study was based off five cafés in each capital city of each country. These cafés were required to offer an espresso, latte, and cappuccino on the menu with the average price of each coffee and café then recorded and converted to US dollars.
SavingSpot estimates that the high price of coffee in South Korea is due to number of themed cafés, like those which allow café goers to interact with cats while consuming coffee. According to the study, Seoul, South Korea’s capital city, also has the highest number of Starbucks in the world.
Qatar, Lebanon, Kuwait, and Switzerland follow after South Korea as the world’s most expensive countries to consume coffee in. Of the world’s top 10 most expensive coffee places, five were middle eastern countries. Savingspot reasons this is due to the growing demand for specialty coffee, in part due to the country’s abstinence from alcohol.
Eastern Asian countries were also found to serve expensive coffeem with Tokyo paying roughly $5.29 per cup. The study suggests Iran was considered the cheapest coffee country due to a consumer preference for tea.
Luxembourg placed as the world’s largest consumer of coffee, drinking 11.1 kilograms of coffee per capita in a year. SavingSpot says this is due to the country’s location, as the “cultural crossroad of coffee-loving Europe”.
Countries such as Nepal, India, and Pakistan consumed the least amount of coffee, drinking less than 0.1 kilograms per capita in a year.
The world’s biggest coffee-producing regions were Central and South America and Vietnam. These countries were also some of the cheapest areas to buy a cup of coffee.
Brazil was found to be the largest coffee producer in the world with also a high consumption rate. SavingSpot says Brazilian coffees such as the Cafe Latte, which is filtered coffee with milk, or Cafe Puro, which is black coffee often filtered through a sock, on average costs US$1.89 per cup.
For more information or to read the price of coffee, broken down per country, please click here.