Here are some articles about the best cities in the US for coffee. They combine a number of measures to create an overall ranking.

Which U.S. City Has The Most Coffee Shops? These Are The Best Places For Coffee Lovers In America

The Best Cities for Coffee Fanatics

Top 5 cities are:
1. Seattle, WA
2. New Orleans, LA
3. Portland, OR
4. San Francisco, CA
5. Oakland, CA

I've been to New Orleans, and I'd hardly call it the second best city for coffee in the USA, unless you're talking quantity rather than quality.

Alan

I live in New Orleans, and having never been to any of the other cities on that list have no point of reference, but I would still say we do coffee pretty well.

Here is a fairly comprehensive list of third wave type coffee shops in the area.
http://nola.eater.com/maps/best-new-nol ... fe-heatmap

Most of those places I haven't been to, as the majority of my coffee consumption takes place at home, however I I've never been disappointed by Addiction, Spitfire or French Truck. In fact French Truck is where I get all of my whole beans from.

Honolulu #9? What? Been there, had the coffee, seen the scene.

Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, sure. Honolulu? I think not.

These computer-generated "listicles" will always be silly and not worthy of serious discussion.

I gotta get a plug in for Philly - we're better than #16!! We now have at least 25 world class shops, many of whom roast their own and do it very well. Several owners are leaders in SCAA / BGA and beyond, e.g. Aaron Ultimo, Josh and Jess Steffe. World class coffee is a short walk away in almost every neighborhood right now - Rival Brothers, Ultimo, Square One (my hangout), Reanimator, Elixr, etc. The suburbs aren't so lucky, but it's getting better (e.g. Green Engine in Bryn Mawr). My wife and I have been thinking seriously about opening a tiny shop near our condo next year when I'm fully retired. Let's get Philly on the national coffee map!!

Philly Eater's 2015 list (still vaild but with several new ones in addition)
Foursquare's list
the Visit Philly list

These lists are totally whacked. I mean, coffee shops per residents is totally misleading in a big city. LA is not really one city. It's hundreds of micro-munis. And not all of them are coffee shop demographics... But if you were to visit Venice, larchmont, downtown, or say, where I live in Silverlake/echo park... The amount of 3w coffee is insane per capita... Right now there are so many good shops in a mile or so... Caffe Vita, Dinosaur, Intelligentsia, Alfred, Blue Bottle, Woodcat, LA MILL, Eightfold, and now La Colombe is taking over for where Kasbah used to be... You could practically walk to all of these down the line. It is becoming the rodeo drive of coffee, like everyone needs to put there brand store here.
And that is not even including Atwater (right next to silverlake) which has Trystero and Cognoscenti. Nor is it including MANY coffee shops in the same areas that are not what some would call "top tier."

But when you include all of LA, most of which is not 3w coffee territory, the numbers look ridiculously low, because it is a HUGE place.

I am sure there are other cities in the same predicament...But the list is just browse fodder...

Good points

The DTLA arts district is trying to establish itself as an up and coming coffee center in LA.

That's good to hear about Philly. I tried moving there a year or so back, but didn't get any job offers. I am just about to move into a new department at work, so I probably won't be going anywhere for another year or two, but I wouldn't be surprised if I end up there eventually.

We love visiting NOLA, but we've been happy as clams for decades in Philly. WC Fields was wrong.........