Best Coffee Cities in America 2023

#1: Post by **cafespress** » September 23rd, 2023, 4:21 pm

Ranking from WalletHub, not sure how accurate, but it is interesting.

https://wallethub.com/edu/best-cities-f ... newsletter

#2: Post by **DoubleR** » September 23rd, 2023, 6:28 pm

Not sure how accurate it is since I haven't been to all the cities, but I will say,seeing Pittsburgh in the top 10 seems legit. I just moved away from Pittsburgh a few months ago, and it has a really good scene. Lots of specialty coffee roasters that span from modern light roast (KLVN Coffee Lab) to traditional Italian (La Prima Espresso). My personal favorite is Mechanic Coffee. I can only wish that where I'm at in Florida (Jacksonville) had anywhere near as good of a scene as Pittsburgh.

September 23rd, 2023, 6:49 pm

The devil is in the details:

decision factors wrote:Average Price per Pack of Coffee: Full Weight (~7.14 Points)
Average Price of a Cappuccino: Full Weight (~7.14 Points)
Average Spending on Coffee per Household: Full Weight (~7.14 Points)
Share of Adult Coffee Drinkers: Full Weight (~7.14 Points) Note: This metric measures the share of adults who reported drinking "ready-to-drink" coffee in the past six months. "Ready-to-drink" includes already prepared coffee found in the cold section of grocery stores.
Share of Households that Own Coffee Makers: Full Weight (~7.14 Points) Note: This metric includes households that own electric coffee grinders, coffee makers (single-cup/pod-brewing) and/or espresso/cappuccino makers.
Affordable Coffee Shops, Coffee Houses & Cafés Rated 4.5+ Stars per Capita*: Double Weight (~14.29 Points)
Coffee Shops, Coffee Houses & Cafés per Capita*: Double Weight (~14.29 Points)
Coffee & Tea Manufacturers per Capita*: Full Weight (~7.14 Points)
Coffee & Tea Shops with Free Wi-Fi per Capita*: Full Weight (~7.14 Points)
Donut Shops per Capita*: Full Weight (~7.14 Points)
Google Search Traffic for the Term "Coffee": Full Weight (~7.14 Points) Note: Search traffic was measured as a share of the national average.
Presence of Coffee-Centric Events: Full Weight (~7.14 Points) note: Composite metric: 1 - the city hosts a coffee centric event
0 - the city doesn't host a coffee centric event (Caffeine Crawl, Coffee Fest, Coffee Championship)

#4: Post by **jpender** » September 23rd, 2023, 8:35 pm

I wonder if it's the donut shop count that put San Francisco over the top.

#5: Post by **BKH** » September 23rd, 2023, 11:13 pm

I saw this other recent listing fwiw. Cross compare?

https://favy.com/coffee-clubs/best-citi ... e-fanatics

#6: Post by **lancealot** » September 24th, 2023, 3:13 am

another_jim wrote:The devil is in the details:

In other words, just an economic data scrape. No qualitative knowledge of the city's local coffee scene.

#7: Post by **BuckleyT** » September 24th, 2023, 9:52 am

Agree. Case-in-point: spending on coffee (three metrics) weighted up to a collective 21 points but a city-sponsored 'coffee event' get 7. This really pushes Hawaii down the list, since everything is more expensive and local crops (Kona and faux-Kona) are exported.
Cost of living not factored into costs and the demographic age of the population should be taken into account. Places with relatively lower cost of living get placed higher on the list than they might otherwise be, such as Omaha, Buffalo, Tulsa.
Plenty more oversimplifications present themselves - I don't know why I'm bothering to reply to this thread. I'll stop.

September 24th, 2023, 11:36 am

These things are silly, case in point how both articles reference the Boston tea party in the intros.

But, this one ranks my city as #1, Santa Cruz, so it's certainly more accurate.

https://favy.com/coffee-clubs/best-citi ... e-fanatics

#9: Post by **jpender** » September 24th, 2023, 11:47 am

But would you go to Santa Cruz specifically for the coffee?

An international version of this list would be more interesting. Would there be a U.S. city in the top 50?

#10: Post by **Jeff** » September 24th, 2023, 1:26 pm

Nope, the best Bay Area roasters work out of CoRo (Berkeley facility that rents roasting equipment by the hour).