Where Coffee is Hot: By U.S. City

Last summer, we took a mid-year look at Coffee Review readership by U.S. city and state.  We normalized readership figures to account for population differences and produce a more accurate picture of each locale’s interest in coffee, at least as measured by Coffee Review readers per capita.  We normalized for Internet access and literacy too, but frankly, it didn’t change the results much at all.

This month, we started crunching our readership data for the full year of 2013.  Last week, we shared a sneak peek of the results because we noticed that Seattle edged out San Francisco (a reversal of the mid-year data) and couldn’t help but make a connection to the NFC Championship football game played last weekend.

Here are the top 25 coffee cities in the United States, based on Coffee Review per capita readership:

1. Seattle, WA

2. San Francisco, CA

3. Alexandria, VA

4. Cambridge, MA

5. Atlanta, GA

6. Madison, WI

7. Minneapolis, MN

8. Washington, DC

9. Hialeah, FL

10. Denver, CO

11. Honolulu, HI

12. Portland, OR

13. Boston, MA

14. Irvine, CA

15. Salt Lake City, UT

16. St. Louis, MO

17. Pittsburgh, PA

18. San Diego, CA

19. Sacramento, CA

20. Orlando, FL

21. Miami, FL

22. Chicago, IL

23. Austin, TX

24. Los Angeles, CA

25. Arlington, VA

For those interested in our methodology, we considered only the 50 U.S. cities with the most Coffee Review readers.  That means some deserving smaller cities and towns might have been left off the list.  On the other hand, it reduces the prospect of smaller towns unfairly appearing high on the list due to some local traffic anomalies rather than genuinely strong readership.

We welcome your observations and perspective on the list.  For example, it’s not surprising to me that Seattle and San Francisco top the list.  But, how did Alexandria, Virginia, and Cambridge, Massachusetts, make it into the top 5?  I can’t imagine Harvard students would move the dial that much.

In the coming days, we’ll share 2013 readership data and trends by U.S. state, international city, and country.  Any predictions?