Coffee addicts bound for Scandinavia might want to consider a dip in an icy fjord as an alternative morning pick-me-up. The Wall Street Journal has calculated that a grande latte in Oslo will run Americans a jolting $9.83.

Helsinki and Stockholm are also cities offering the top five most expensive Starbucks lattes once the dollar is converted into the local currency.

The paper did the math on 25 major cities around the world (including Beijing at $4.81) to illustrate an economic principle called "purchasing-power parity," or "a crude way to compare the relative strength of currencies." Of course, avid travelers don't need this Starbucks-green bar graph to know that the peso is a lot friendlier to gringo wallets than the euro is, but that conventional wisdom doesn't always translate in the language of Starbucks economics. Otherwise, how would one explain that a grande latte in London is cheaper than one in Atlanta, despite the dollar's weakness in the U.K.?

According to the WSJ, most foreign Starbucks are significantly pricier than the U.S. outlets it also includes, but hey, maybe that's what average Joes deserve for patronizing an American company overseas instead of opting for a local purveyor.

How much is too much to nurse your Starbucks addiction abroad?

[Photo Credit: The Nomad Within via Flickr]

Filed under: Food and Drink, Asia, Europe, North America, Norway