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As I am sifting through my receipts from the last trip out to Asia, I found three different ones for Starbucks. Since I always get the same beverage : a 12-oz soy vanilla latte, I thought it would be interesting to compare the prices :
China .. 30 Yuan, which equals US $ 4.41
Hong Kong .. 31 Hong Kong Dollar, which equals US $ 3.99
Korea.. 5,100 (!) Korean Won, which equals US $ 4.32
and then there is the USA, of course! .. US $4.53
When I travel the coffee is a treat, but I have to say that nowadays I find the 4 bucks excessive (a psychological effect of the recession?), and have resorted to buying the little packets of ground Starbucks Via instant coffee instead for my caffeine fix. That comes out to about $1 .. or $2 if one figures there are two shots of espresso in the latte. Much easier to swallow!