My first encounter with the evil Starbucks empire was on a visit to California in 1997. I remember thinking at the time "What kind of an idiot would spent $4.50 on a coffee?" At the time a latte in Sydney was $2.20 (or $2.50 if you could find a larger styrofome cup at the time which was still a novelty).

Fast forward to 2010 and in a sign of how reversed the two countries economies have become, it's now cheaper to drink lattes (or beer for that matter) in New York than Sydney. In October 2008 I lived in Brooklyn for a month and a latte from my corner cafe there was $2.75 (Atlas Cafe on Havemeyer). For six bucks I got coffee, a toasted bagel with cream cheese and a New York Times full of images of stockbrokers slapping their foreheards. What a bargain.

As you'll all know, in Sydney today most places are now charging $4 for a regular medium size $3.50 or maybe even a bit less if you're in a competitive area like the CBD). For a good coffee in a weird spot, like say, the Toby's Estate across from Victoria Park Pool - it's $4.50 for a not-small take away. If you're soy drinker, that's right, welcome to the scary world of needing notes for your morning caffeine fix.

And all this despite the fact the media tells us Sydney has the cheapest Caps of the three big capital cities - with a regular takeaway averaging $3.06.

So how did this happen? Somewhere along the way crazy American Starbucks prices stabilised and Aussie prices kept going up and up.
Well the strong Aussie dollar has a lot to do with it, as does rising milk and bean prices. But Aussies have also got a lot more discerning in their taste for coffee, and have been willing to pay more for it. Near my work I used to get a great Lavazza from a Chinese takeaway for $2.80. Then a Toby's Estate opened up. Damn it was good coffee, and everyone, perhaps suffering from a mild case of affluenza, was willing to pay a little bit more for a really good cup. Then the dodgy cheap Chinese takeaway closed down. And if someone else moved in, they'd look at the price everyone else was charging and join the $4 club.

I really shouldn't complain. I spent fifteen months travelling the world, visited nine countries and I realise now I think Australia probably has the best coffee of anywhere in the world. But when a three coffee a day habit starts costing fifteen bucks - it's time to get a plunger.

Signed, Grandpa "Back-in-my-day" Stooge.

The late noughties hang out for Sydney Uni arts students of choice, there was one real reason why we loved the Fair Trade Cafe in Glebe, which recently closed its doors. Was it the ethically correct, fine tasting coffee, or the fact the proceeds went towards volunteer projects in third world countries? Or was it the fact that you were bound to hear at least one overly loud conversation about someone's documentary project, short film or band?

No, it was the fact that, ironically, unlike the ironically titled Well Connected cafe next door (one of the first internet cafes in Sydney), The Fair Trade Cafe actually had wi-fi.

The birthplace of the Tropest film festival, this cafe symbolises all that is soul-less and generic about modern Sydney. During the day, it's packed with obviously unemployed people in designer clothes slaving over their masterpiece screenplay on their laptop, pretending to be talking to their "agents" on their mobile phones, all the while a dozen or so plasma screens blare bad 90s music. The coffee is not bad, but the food, a rather generic and small menu of mediocre foccaccias and pastas, makes McDonalds or Subway look like a home to individualism.

I had a mate who used to love this place and would constantly be dragging me here. Why? I worked out he wanted to be "somebody", and where was he spending his time? Sitting crammed in a cafeteria full of other wanna-bes pretending to be somebody.

For the record, my favourite Sydney cafe is Cafe Berardo of Glebe (RIP), which was full of unemployed musicians and writers who at least knew they were nobodies... and the coffee was sublime.

Tropicana Cafe is at 227 Victoria Road, Darlinghurst.