Courtesy Heart Coffee Roasters

The 10 Best Coffee Cities in the U.S.

Places where Dunkin’ Donuts doesn’t quite cut it.

When you think of urbanites sipping freshly roasted coffees, clutching oversized mugs in cafe corners, certain cities come to mind. There’s laid-back Portland, Oregon, with its innovative brew scene, or Seattle, where the invention of Starbucks kicked off a long-standing relationship with caffeine.

Well, it's not just a stereotype. According to its third annual report on the topic, SmartAsset—a New York-based personal finance tech company—finds that these West Coast hubs are indeed some of the best places to get a cuppa in the U.S.

By looking at factors like average Yelp ratings for coffee shops, the percent of “exceptional” coffee shops in a place, the overall number of coffee shops and roasters, as well as Google search traffic surrounding the word “coffee,” the company pulled together the top 10 cities for coffee—and Portland took the number one spot this year.

In part, Oregon's hippest city wins out because there are 20 dedicated roasters that manufacture their own coffee within city limits. Places like Heart Roasters source beans from Africa and South America and serve them with to your liking. (Want homemade walnut almond milk? You got it.) Meanwhile, Sterling Coffee Roasters serves "micro-hand-batch-craft-roasted coffee," which we think translates as: super fresh.

Following Portland, Seattle—the top city for coffee for the past two years, with its 1,622 coffee shops—dropped to second. Why the hit? It also has one of the pricier pours out there: The average cost of a cappuccino is $4.21, according to SmartAsset sources (though we don't know a lot of people drinking cappuccinos in Seattle when there's a strong cold brew to be had). Rounding out the top five cities were Oakland, California (which has an impressive five roasters and 623 coffee shops), San Diego, and New Orleans, where some shops like French Truck serve chicory-spiked iced coffee, paying homage to French roots. Honolulu rounds out the list at number 10—and with the most expensive cappuccino ($4.65).

Below, the full list of the top 10 list of cities for coffee in the United States:

  1. Portland, OR
  2. Seattle, WA
  3. Oakland, CA
  4. San Diego, CA (tie)
  5. New Orleans, LA (tie)
  6. San Francisco, CA
  7. San Jose, CA
  8. Denver, CO
  9. Austin, TX
  10. Honolulu, HI