The town may have a rich brewing history, but coffee seems to be the drink of choice in Farnham these days.

The ratio of coffee sellers to residents in Farnham is among the highest in the country, coming ahead of Manchester, Bristol and even London.

So that got us thinking – where is the cheapest and most expensive place to get a cup of Joe in the town centre? Time to stir the pot and find out, with reporter Louis Muddle hitting the streets to find the least and most expensive latte.

Given most independent cafes only sell one size, we have taken the ‘medium’ option at chains like Starbucks and Costa as a comparison.

Our roving reporter visited more than 30 places which sell coffee within a short walk of the foot of Castle Street. Yep, there’s that many.

He restricted his investigation to points between Elphicks and the former Slug and Lettuce, Farnham Castle and the Maltings, with cafes, pubs and restaurants all included. The results are not definitive but should give you an idea of the range of prices in the town centre.

We’ll start at the budget end with Borelli’s Wine Bar and Grill charging £3 for a latte. Owner David Quick claims to be something of a pioneer in Farnham’s coffee-selling scene as there wasn’t such a proliferation of cafes when the bar opened more than 30 years ago.

He said: “We don’t trade purely as a coffee bar and it’s ancillary to what we do, but we offer it because people often like a coffee after their meal.

“It’s not a major part of our business but we like to remain current.”

Farnham’s cheapest latte can probably be found in the Spire Café on South Street, run by Sue Parratt.

She said: “It’s cheap because we don’t have any overheads and we’re not here to make a huge profit.

“People often say ‘that’s cheap’ but we run this place as a service to the community.”

Not only are the prices low, but proceeds from café sales on Saturday go to a different charity every month, with the July recipient being Cut Out Cancer RSH.

If you’re happy to shell out a bit more, the average price of a medium latte in the town centre is around £3.75, while it’s over £4 in several cafes. Caffe Nero, Starbucks, Gail’s and Harris & Hoole charge all charge around £4.10 for a medium, although smaller sizes start at the £3.70 mark.

A pattern we noticed is that chains price their medium coffee from a high £3 to low-to-mid £4, while prices in independent places are towards the lower £3 mark.

Coffee prices are continually rising because the price of some beans like Arabica have recently increased by around per cent, and that’s before transportation costs are factored.

Crops in two of the world’s largest coffee exporters, Brazil and Vietnam, have also been affected by droughts and erratic rainfall, respectively, in a further blow to production and supply chains.

(Additional reporting by Louis Muddle)