Seattle is not ‘America’s Best Coffee City’

Coffee is one of the most popular beverages in the world. Its use has grown exponentially since it was allegedly accidentally discovered by goat herders in the North Africa/Middle East area hundreds of years ago. While that region and Italy have a worldwide reputation for their large number of coffee drinkers, millions of people in the United States love coffee as well. For several decades Seattle, Washington, home of Starbucks and other popular brands of coffee, has held the crown as the coffee capital of the United States. Now a new study says several other cities outdo Seattle when it comes to access to coffee and coffee-related products.

Shocking New Study

Most Americans believe that when it comes to access to coffee shops, Seattle, Washington is king. But apparently that is not the case any more. If this new study is correct, a number of cities have surpassed Seattle when it comes to the ratio of coffee shops to the number of people that live there. According to a recent study released by Apartment Guide, the ‘Coffee King’ crown has been wrested from the head of Seattle, Washington. Recent research has identified three other cities located in the Pacific Northwest that have more coffee shops per capita than Seattle. The study used U.S. Census Bureau population data and divided them by the number of each city’s coffee-related attractions and businesses to get the shocking new results.

The 10 Best Cities for Coffee Lovers in America

The research was conducted by the housing and lifestyle site Apartment Guide in an effort to identify America’s best cities for coffee lovers. Using the U.S. Census data, they looked at cities with 100,000 residents or more. They then counted the number of coffee shops, cafes, establishments that sell coffee and tea and other businesses and attractions that are coffee-related in each of those cities. They then divided the number of coffee-rated businesses into the population numbers and released the results in a report they titled “The 10 Best Cities for Coffee Lovers in America”.

The Top 50 Coffee Cities

The first step Apartment Guide took was to identify the 50 American cities that have the most coffee shops. After some discussion and mathematical processes, they were able identify the 10 cities that have the highest ratio of coffee shops per number of residents. The study’s authors then made the bold revelation that Seattle had been toppled off the throne as America’s most caffeinated city. Many people were shocked Seattle, with a Starbucks on almost every block, had been dethroned. But when the comprehensive scientific process was complete, the only question was ‘Who’s the new champ?’

Nationwide Contenders

According to the Apartment Guide report that was released a little over a week ago, there are contenders for America’s top coffee city all over the northern half of the country. There are contenders from California, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Utah, Minnesota and Washington State all with very high numbers of coffee businesses per capita. The information Apartment Guide used to compile their top coffee city list was widely available. The results they produced were very surprising. According to Apartment Guide’s calculations Seattle, Washington is fourth in per capita coffee-related businesses.

The Top Ten

Seattle has one coffee business for every 2,308 residents. The city with the third highest ratio of coffee business to residents has 2,297, the second place city had 2,224 residents for every place to get coffee. In the city with the most places to get coffee per capita, there are 2,073 residents for every coffee-related location. The top four cities with the highest per capita coffee-related locations are in the northwestern United States. Maybe it’s all that rain or some other element of the climate in the northwest. Whatever it is, people there have easy access to lots of coffee.

The Results Of The Study

According to the study conducted by Apartment Guide, the top 10 cities where people have the easiest access to coffee and coffee-related products are:

10. Ann Arbor, Michigan
9. Everett, Washington
8. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
7. Minneapolis, Minnesota
6. Salt Lake City, Utah
5. Portland, Oregon
4. Seattle, Washington
3. San Francisco, California
2. Vancouver, Washington

And the city that Apartment Guide’s research shows is now America’s number one city when it comes to the ratio of coffee products to residents is Berkeley, California. So now people who are planning their vacations where they hope to have the easiest access to coffee should head to the Golden State instead.