The 5 Best Destinations In America For Coffee Lovers, According To Aficionados

Coffee is an astonishingly popular beverage, with over 400 million cups of coffee consumed per day in the United States alone, making the beverage people drink the most, behind water. It's thought that there are over 38 thousand coffee shops throughout the country as of 2022, according to Statista.

These stores feed the need many people have to get a beverage before starting their day or heading to work. Some cafés even offer a place to study and be productive away from your home and office, or to relax and hang out with friends. Many of these coffee shops are part of large chains, though, and often have standard-tasting drinks. If you want to be inspired by an elevated and truly unique taste, you have to know where to go in the U.S.

While it's possible to find good coffee across the United States, if you want unique blends and flavors as well as a high number of amazing shops in one area, then you need to take a look at some of the best cities to get your favorite beverage. These places stand out due to their local roasters, unique beverages, and all-around delicious coffee. Thanks to discussions by coffee lovers from all over the country, it was easy to create a list of the top five cities for those looking to try the best drink, and what each city has to offer for their roasts and shops.

Seattle, Washington, is well-known for its coffee. One of the city's more notable facts related to the beverage is that it's the home of the original Starbucks, first founded in 1971 in Pike Place Market. Even for those who aren't a huge fan of coffee, Starbucks is a name you've likely heard hundreds, if not thousands, of times. It might not have been the first coffee shop in Seattle, but it was the biggest and can now be found all over the world, with over 17,000 stores in the United States alone.

But while Starbucks might have set the foundation for the coffee culture in Seattle, the city has managed to branch out since then and make an impressive name for itself beyond the ubiquitous chain. Its long history and high density of coffee shops make it stand out as the most famous city in the United States when it comes to this beverage.

There are a few theories on why coffee blew up so much in Seattle and other parts of the Pacific Northwest. The main theory seems to center on the rainy, overcast weather and few short hours of daylight in the winter. After all, what's better to warm you up or brighten your mood on a cloudy day than a nice, hot cup of coffee? Maybe that's why Seattle is regarded as one of the most caffeinated cities in the country.

The Pacific Northwest is considered the best region to find coffee in all of the United States, with two major cities taking the lead in the culture. While Seattle has long been known as the coffee capital of the country, another city is starting to be considered a serious contender for that title. Not only is Portland, Oregon, the place to go when you want the best coffee in all of America, it's also one of the prettiest cities in the country if you want to walk around and explore the sights while enjoying your beverage.

The best part of Portland's coffee scene is the variety. In the city, you can find brew styles from all over the world, including Scandinavian, Vietnamese, Filipino, and American styles. Many of the coffee shops are owned by individuals and families instead of corporations, which makes each one a little unique and refreshing. The scene is also filled with sustainable and local roasters along with creative ways to make coffee, with cold brew and nitro coffee being a few of the more recent notable styles.

If you're in Portland, it's worth visiting several of its numerous coffee shops. Sure, you can find gas station coffee and Starbucks pretty much anywhere, but if you want something local and delicious, places like Futura, Never, and Keeper Coffee are just some of the options that come highly recommended by locals. And, of course, you can't go to Portland without checking out Stumptown Coffee Roasters. This shop is known for having helped bring delicious and unique coffee to Portland when it first opened in 1999.

Of course, Hawaii has to be included on this list. After all, it's one of the main places in the United States that actually grows coffee. Every part of the island state is capable of producing beans, but regions like Kona, Hamakua, Maui, and Molokai are the most common areas that grow them.

Kona coffee is delicious and handled with care, sometimes making it an expensive option to buy or get, but it's worth the price. It's a special coffee that's shipped all around the United States and much of the rest of the world. It's popular thanks to a fine taste that is low in acidity and is slightly nutty with hints of fruit and chocolate. There are a few reasons why Kona coffee is so special, and the volcanic soil the plants grow in is a huge part of it thanks to the nutrients in the ash. However, though the coffee is grown Kona, Honolulu is one of the most recommended locations to actually taste the unique beans, with places like Ali'i Coffee Co., The Curb, Lion Coffee, and Morning Glass Coffee all highly recommended by visitors and those who live in the community.

While Honolulu is the best major Hawaiian city to go if you want a variety of coffee selections, Holualoa, on the Big Island, is said to be the place where you'll have the best coffee experience possible in Hawaii. The local roasters offer daily tours, so those wanting to learn more about their favorite beverage can do so, and perhaps try a sample at the end.

If you haven't been to Chicago and tried the coffee before, it may be hard to believe quite how amazing this city is at making the perfect brew, which may make it the most surprising entry on this list. Of course, if you want some of the best coffee, you will likely have to avoid the Windy City's tourist traps and find the local favorites to visit instead. If you get your coffee early in the morning, you can enjoy a beautiful sunrise at this stunning family-friendly beach while enjoying your drink. The city is home to some impressive roasters as well as unforgettable coffee shops. Metric, Metropolis, Intelligentsia, Dark Matter, and Passion House Coffee are just some of the delicious brands made right inside the city.

While many parts of Chicago have great coffee, there are certain places where the passion for this beverage stands out compared to others. Logan Square is one such place, as is the Loop and River North. They aren't just places filled with chain coffee shops either, as the local roasters often take residence in these spaces or sell to nearby cafes.

If you're looking to get a great cup of Joe and you're tired of traveling to the same few cities, or if you just happen to find yourself in Chicago for some reason, you'll want to swing by a few of these shops and give them a try. You may even find your new favorite place to get coffee, so don't forget to grab a couple of bags from local roasters so you can experience the same delicious flavor at home.

What makes New Orleans coffee stand out so much compared to others is chicory, a plant with a bittersweet flavor that works well alongside the typical beans. It was originally roasted and added to coffee to help stretch the supply when bean shortages were common. However, many people ended up enjoying the flavor, so the practice of adding roasted chicory to ground coffee continued. The most popular version of chicory coffee comes from Cafe Du Monde in New Orleans. Since it can be so bitter, cafe au lait, coffee (not espresso) with a little milk and sugar, is the preferred drink in Louisiana.

Of course, not everyone in the city drinks chicory coffee, especially daily. If you're looking for a different style, dark roasts are also incredibly popular in the area. Beyond those options, several local roasters are working to broaden the New Orleans coffee world by introducing specialty coffees and different roasts in an ongoing attempt to add more diversity to the city's café offerings.

While its coffee drinks are amazing, including the chicory blend if you want something different, they aren't all this city has to offer. After all, New Orleans is one of the best tourist destinations, according to Rick Steves, thanks to its wonderful attractions. New Orleans is also known for its amazing food, with American, Cajun, Creole, French, and several other food cultures all combined to create original and delicious delicacies. After all, if you're going to drink some coffee to start your day, you have to get the beignets to eat alongside your beverage.

In 2024, WalletHub created a list of the best major cities for coffee and coffee lovers. They used weighted metrics like price per cup, how much people spend on their drinks on average, the number of places that make or sell coffee, and so on.

However, while these metrics can be useful, they don't really cover the quality of coffee in any given area. So to make sure this list contained the best places to get a delicious cup of Joe, blogs and Reddit posts comparing different cities and states were also reviewed and taken into account.

For the most part, the top five lined up pretty well, with three locations being the same as WalletHub, though in a different order. However, the two main differences were New Orleans and Chicago, which were ranked eighth and 19th, respectively, by WalletHub which ranked Orlando, Florida and San Francisco, California in its top five. However, while there are definitely coffee lovers in these cities, the taste and quality of the coffee sold there does not seem to be as good as you find in New Orleans or Chicago, according to people who have traveled across the country to try the brews each location has to offer. Thus, we replaced them on our list with cities people said had unique coffee and are worth traveling to just to grab a cup.