SAN FRANCISCO (KRON/NEXSTAR) — Everyone’s had that Monday morning moment where the only trick to starting their week is a hot cup (or sometimes a cold cup) of delicious, fresh-brewed coffee.
The trick though is finding where to find that perfect cup of Joe.
WalletHub took it upon itself to answer this very question and ranked the “Best Coffee Cities in America” based on its findings from the 100 largest cities in the U.S.
Using factors such as the price of coffee, the number of adult coffee drinkers, the number of highly rated coffee shops and similar factors, WalletHub ranked each city on a scale of 0-100.
Taking the top spot on the list was Portland, Oregon, with a score of 67.01, which just edged out second-place San Francisco’s score of 65.80. The two West Coast cities switched spots from WalletHub’s 2023 ranking when San Francisco was ranked the best coffee city in the country.
Portland’s plethora of extremely affordable, highly-rated coffee shops was enough to make the push to No. 1. Residents there also spend an average of $170 a year on coffee, the 18th most in the country.
At No. 2, San Francisco households spend an average of over $280 on the beverage each year, the second-most of any city.
San Franciscans also have the highest percentage of U.S. households with an espresso or cappuccino maker (11%).
Check out WalletHub’s top 10 coffee cities in the country right here:
WalletHub: Best Coffee Cities in America
| Rank | City | Total Score |
| 1 | Portland, OR | 67.01 |
| 2 | San Francisco, CA | 65.80 |
| 3 | Seattle, WA | 65.06 |
| 4 | Honolulu, HI | 63.92 |
| 5 | Orlando, FL | 63.79 |
| 6 | Tampa, FL | 63.79 |
| 7 | Long Beach, CA | 63.48 |
| 8 | New Orleans, LA | 62.57 |
| 9 | Austin, TX | 62.08 |
| 10 | Miami, FL | 61.94 |
WalletHub’s full list of the top coffee cities can be found on their website.
What makes a good cup of coffee?
If you’re trying to make that perfect cup of coffee in the comfort of your home, there’s a bit more that goes into making a great brew than you’d probably expect.
According to Coffee School, there are four key factors to good coffee: the beans, the roast, the grind, and the water quality.
The best coffee beans are typically labeled as “single-origin” or “small-batch roasting.” Single-origin means that the coffee beans are from a single country and have not been mixed with other beans. Small-batch roasting means exactly what you think: the beans are roasted in small batches, creating a more complex flavor.
The roast refers to the exact type of roast of your coffee. These types include light, medium, medium-dark, and dark. This influences a variety of factors for your coffee including acidity, sweetness, bitterness, and strength.
The time between your beans being turned into grounds also plays a part in the quality of your coffee — the sooner the beans are ground, the better. Oxidation and other environmental factors begin to degrade roasted coffee beans almost immediately.
Finally, it’s advised to use regular filtered water for your coffee as it removes impurities and excess minerals from your water. This also will help prolong the life of your coffee maker as it limits the build-up of limescale and other mineral deposits, which all negatively affect the taste of your coffee.