The Best Cities for Coffee Lovers, According to Price and Proximity

Mike Pomranz

Over the summer, two different groups released reports on which American cities have the most breweries per capita, arriving at slightly different conclusions: One suggested Portland (Maine), Asheville, and Bend were the top three while the other quibbled that Asheville and Portland should switch places. But what if the buzz you're after is from caffeine, not alcohol? Today, the credit website WalletHub has unveiled its list of 2019's Best Coffee Cities in America, providing an uplifting counterpoint for the most coffee-dependent among us.

Irina Marwan/Getty Images
Irina Marwan/Getty Images

For their analysis, WalletHub looked beyond just the number of coffee shops and roasters, instead choosing to rank each city on "14 key indicators of coffee lover-friendliness" in all. They included things like average prices of coffee beans and cappuccinos, the percentage of people who drink coffee and how much they spend, and the quality of the coffee shops, including things like affordability and free Wi-Fi. They even used Google search traffic in each city as a component of the score.

Overall, America's 100 largest cities were analyzed for the list, and here are your top and bottom ten:

WalletHub's Best Coffee Cities in America

1. Seattle, Washington
2. New York, New York
3. San Francisco, California
4. Portland, Oregon
5. Los Angeles, California
6. Chicago, Illinois
7. Washington, DC
8. Miami, Florida
9. San Diego, California
10. Boston, Massachusetts

91. North Las Vegas, Nevada
92. Stockton, California
93. Winston-Salem, North Carolina
94. Birmingham, Alabama
95. Memphis, Tennessee
96. San Bernardino, California
97. Detroit, Michigan
98. Laredo, Texas
99. Greensboro, North Carolina
100. Toledo, Ohio

Of course, different metrics are important to different people. If you simply want as many coffee shops as possible, that group was ruled by larger cities. The ones with the most coffee shops per capita were New York, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Seattle, and Portland, Oregon.

However, if you value price, these are the two lists you probably want to look at:

Lowest Average Price of a Cappuccino

1. Aurora, Colorado
2. El Paso, Texas
3. Newark, New Jersey
4. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
5. Tulsa, Oklahoma

Lowest Average Price per Pack of Coffee

1. Houston, Texas
2. Miami, Florida
3. Hialeah, Florida
4. Louisville, Kentucky
5. Winston-Salem, North Carolina

Meanwhile, if you want to be with your coffee-loving brethren Hialeah, Florida, was listed as having the highest percentage of adult coffee drinkers. The city with the lowest percentage: Fort Wayne, Indiana. It begs the question: How does anyone get anything done in Fort Wayne, Indiana?