Atlantans love their coffee, as evidenced by the more than 2,000 votes in our recent Best of Atlanta poll about the best place to get a cup o' joe.
That might be why the city ranked so high on WalletHub’s recent analysis of the best coffee cities in the United States.
To determine the best cities for coffee lovers, the personal finance website compared the 100 most populated U.S. cities across 12 key metrics. Each metric was graded on a 100-point scale. A score of 100 represents the most favorable conditions for coffee lovers.
- WalletHub considered only the “city proper” in each case and excluded the cities in the surrounding metro area.
- Average price for pack of coffee
- Average price of a cappuccino
- Average spending on coffee per household (measures the share of adults who reported drinking “ready-to-drink” coffee in the past six months. “Ready-to-drink” includes already prepared coffee found in the cold section of grocery stores.)
- Share of households that own coffee makers (includes households that own electric coffee grinders, coffee makers and/or espresso/cappuccino makers)
- Affordable coffee shops, coffee houses & cafés Rated 4.5+ stars per capita
- Coffee shops, coffee houses & cafés per capita
- Coffee & tea manufacturers per capita
- Coffee shops with free Wi-Fi per capita
- Donut shops per capita
- Google search traffic for the term “coffee” (search traffic was measured as a share of the national average)
- “Coffee lovers” meetups per capita
When the scores were tallied, Seattle — home of Starbucks — came out on top with a score of 73.68.
Atlanta finished at No. 10, with a score of 59.85. Atlanta was:
- 40th – Avgerage price of a cappuccino
- 16th – Average spending on coffee per household
- 47th – Percent of adults who reported drinking “ready-to-drink” coffee in the past six months
- 11th – Coffee shops, coffee Houses & cafés per capita
- 54th – Coffee & tea manufacturers per capita
“I do not think America’s penchant for coffee is going to change,” said Sheri Lokken Worthy, head of the Department of Financial Planning, Housing & Consumer Economics at the University of Georgia College of Family and Consumer Sciences. “However, due to the pandemic, many have shifted from away-from-home coffee consumption to at-home consumption. This will probably continue in the near future.”
Many people are still indulging in that $5 cup of liquid energy, however.
"One of the reasons people may overspend on coffee is convenience, Worthy said. "If the coffee shop is located on your way, who can resist that intoxicating smell? For others, that special cup of coffee may be one small treat they allow themselves to help make it through the morning.
Worthy added it’s OK to indulge ourselves from time to time, “but we need to be cognizant of how much they add up over time. Consider not stopping for coffee every morning.”
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