A survey by WalletHub, a financial site, listed the nation's top cities for coffee.
The survey considered several factors such as number of coffee shops per capita, average cost for a croissant (not sure what that has to do with judging coffee) and average price of a cappuccino.
Portland OR came in at the top of the list, followed by Seattle. Next were Minneapolis, Pittsburgh and Orlando.
Since they are all smaller cities, I guess New York wouldn't fare well in the coffee shops per capita measurement. In Manhattan, there seem to be coffee shops, delis and coffee carts on almost every corner. But then, of course, we have 8-1/2 million people here, so the shops per capita number still will be low.
And on price, Starbucks everywhere is way overpriced, but you can get a pretty decent cup of coffee at a deli or coffee cart for a buck. That doesn't seem to be taken into consideration in this survey.
Also, I'm not sure using the price of a butter croissant is a fair measure. First of all, it has nothing to with the coffee itself. And here in New York, the baked good that more commonly accompanies coffee would be a buttered roll or buttered bagel.
No wonder, then, that New York scored #89 among the top 100 cities. L.A. didn't do too much better, coming in at #82.
Even here in New York, Starbucks seem to be ubiquitous, although there are lots of indie coffee shops serving all sorts of exotic (and costly) brews. But for my taste, Starbucks is too strong and bitter. And for me, it's made even more bitter by the crazy prices and the haughty aura of the names for small, medium and large -- vente, grande and whatever.
Despite scoring #89, I know New York is a top coffee town. To me, this survey doesn't amount to a hill of beans. Just gimme a damn medium coffee with milk and no sugar.