World’s 5 Greatest Coffee Cities
COMMENT, Global – Which cities have the best espresso coffee in the world?
Well we may have some ideas about which have the worst… But the best?
Before we get to that let’s look at some interesting facts and insights about why coffee is important…
Why should we care about good coffee?
There have been a number of intellectual articles and books written about coffee. More than a few come to the conclusion that coffee is a stimulant, and was in part responsible for the Enlightenment period.
1. Coffee (not too much!) makes us alert thinkers
The basic premise goes that coffee replaced alcohol as the drink of choice. Instead of making people drowsy it made them alert, and so coffee houses became sources of intellectual foment and discussion. True especially in Paris & Vienna.
Ben Franklin said that his aversion to beer, (and his later love of French coffee houses), kept him far more alert than ‘beer-soaked’ printers who worked in printing houses. Franklin started out as a printer by trade in Philadelphia. At that time people did drink beer rather than water or coffee.
Many of the great political and intellectual movements can be traced to a Viennese coffee house.
Mozart reputedly played his last public concert in my favorite Viennese coffee house, Cafe Frauenhuber, off the Kartner Strasse. Still there. Still great coffee. And crepes.
Franklin, Bonaparte, Voltaire had all visited the same Parisian coffee house (pictured above). It was the Café Procope, in rue de l’Ancienne Comédie.
2. Coffee fuels the workplace
Modern workforces survive on coffee. IT people could not survive on coffee. When I was at WordCamp 2007, in July, discussing blogging and web 2.0, it was pretty much wall-to-wall caffeine addicts.
The fibre-optic cable may be the nerve system of the networks that power the world, but all the software that runs those networks is controlled by people who drink coffee!
Personally, I can skip breakfast, but not my coffee. It opens my mind, let’s the juices flow, and allows my thought processes to work clearly. I find coffee opens up my head and allows my normally clogged morning brain to work.
There has been limited research done that suggests a coffee gene that predisposes some people towards favorable responses to coffee.
Some people I know (like my mum) feel the same way about the English cup of tea.
In summary, coffee in part fueled the Enlightenment ( a great period of innovation), modern technology and numerous innovations.
The world seemingly runs on the black stuff of the bean!
But where is the best cup of Coffee?
Well here’s the 5 best cities I have had coffee in the world. This has recently changed over my previous list. The picture following is a typical Vienna Coffee House.
1. Vienna - World’s best varieties of coffee, and the most beutifully presented coffees. Beyond a double espresso gross, try a milky melange or a cream-stained einspanner (my favourite). My favourite blend is Julius Meinl.
2. Melbourne - among the worlds best espresso when you know where. Look for Giancarlo signature blend or Manfredi and a good barista!
Then the Italian cities. You could rank these in any order…
3. Rome - great espresso except in tourist traps
4. Milan - great espresso as you’d expect
5. Verona - a beautiful place to drink espresso
And yes you could substitute a lot of Italian cities or rank them differently. Florence I found disappointing, but this may have been the places chosen, and a prevailing bad mood…
Why is Italy below Melbourne or Vienna? Italy though has less consistent coffee than Melbourne or Vienna. This may be a function of being a visitor. A permanent locals’ experience may be different.
Takeaway coffee is also less common in Italy or Vienna,and most of Europe. Most people sit and take their time.
Coffee Elsewhere in the World…
Paris can have good coffee, but conversely it can be difficult to get great espresso in many city places. Strasbourg had a few nice cups.
Sydney would probably rank somewhere in a more expansive list.
London has some of the worst coffee, along with many Asian cities. But then again, you would expect that (various teas are more favored).
The surprise is the USA. Mostly bad espresso even if you see Italians. Starbucks is ok, it suits the US climate, but it is not the same as great espresso.
The 2 best cities I have had coffee in the USA are Boston and San Francisco, but I do not like the watery nature of the coffee in the USA, nor the taste. It’s a style of coffee not to my taste. Great coffee has a flavour that needs no milk, cream or sugar.
The best cup of coffee in the USA was at the Bristol Grill in Boston, though some Newbury Street restaurants were good.
The best chain for coffee in the USA I found was Seattle’s Best Coffee.
If anybody disagrees, I am open to a coffee tasting to discuss!
take care,
Christopher
Speaker. Author. Editor-In-Chief. Executive Director of Innovation, 2thinknow.
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