There are some things that people from all around the world experience together – the unending love parents have for their children, a nagging fear masked by laughing at the idea of President Trump, and the undeniable fact that coffee is a daily hero to many.
Coffee is enjoyed all around the world, but some places do it better than others, so we have compiled our top picks to ensure equal opportunity for caffeine addicts everywhere.
Paris, France
Coffee is made to be part of Paris the way the Eiffel Tower, thousands of padlocks on bridges, and unemployed eccentrics claiming to artists are. The first mention of Paris conjures images of sunny terrace cafes full of sophisticated patrons, often wearing stripes, sipping from dainty cups beneath the Eiffel Tower – as is a perfectly normal Tuesday for all Parisians obviously.
A visit to Paris is hardly complete without an afternoon spent on a sunny terrace with a café au lait, or tucked in a cosy patisserie with a croissant sheltering from the cold. At Le Select you can enjoy your coffee with a side of history, as it was famously the favoured haunt of up and comers such as F Scott Fitzgerald, Hemingway and Picasso.
Buenos Aires, Argentina
On the other side of the world, Buenos Aires boasts its own thriving café culture. Cortados are sipped in a buzzing atmosphere alive with talk of politics, football and how to prove once and for all that the best empanadas in the world come from Argentina – but choose the café in which to while away the afternoon wisely.
Buenos Aires is a city that loves its coffee – how else do they eat dinner at 11pm every day of the week? – but whether you will love the coffee in Buenos Aires is a different matter. The quality here is hit or miss, though newer venues such as Full City and LATTEnTE show there is promise yet.
Melbourne, Australia
Australia has developed a strong reputation for coffee over recent years, having shown a love and loyalty for independent coffee roasters by rejecting the Starbucks takeover. The result is very few coffee chains, the invention of the ‘flat white’, and cities full of independent cafes with hip young baristas just returned from plying their trade in London.
Melbourne’s café culture is a huge part of the lifestyle, and the fact that you are more likely than not to get a killer cup of java here has been confirmed by the city’s presence on many a ‘best coffee in the world’ lists.
San Francisco, USA
The home of the Golden Gate Bridge has steadily been creating an impressive foodie culture in and around the city. California may be known for its wines, but San Francisco is a regular host of food festivals and the like, so it’s no surprise that coffee has also taken off. Blue Bottle Coffee is home to the most popular cup of java, and they’ve been so successful a store has just opened in Japan where it is rumoured you can spend up to four hours nursing your caffeine craving waiting in queue.
Seattle, USA
You already know that Seattle is the home of Starbucks, whether you view that as a positive or negative. But Starbucks was created in the rainy city for a reason – it’s a metropolis full of coffee lovers. There are plenty of independent cafes as well as other Seattle-born chains such as Stumpton, where you will be stumped when it comes to choosing from the huge variety of beans they have available.
London, United Kingdom
In a city where millions of people hurriedly race to and from work each day on long commutes via Tube, bike, bus and on foot is one that runs on caffeine, but some areas of London are better for a cup of coffee than others. Neighbourhoods such as Shoreditch and Bloomsbury for example, are full of independent cafes and small chains that freelance writers use as temporary offices from where to write their latest travel blog articles.
The most popular coffee in London is Monmouth Coffee, hands down, for which Londoners will queue patiently in true British fashion just to get their hands around that promising cup of energy-giving goodness.
Indonesia
There is one cup of coffee also serves as a YOLO-esque travel experience: Kopi Luwak. Luwak coffee is fairly famous, so if the name doesn’t ring a bell it might be because you have heard it called ‘cat poop coffee’ instead. The process of creating Luwak coffee is actually far more sophisticated than ‘cat poop coffee’ implies, involving the consideration of all sorts of enzymes within the civet’s digestive system and other somewhat icky factors, and the result is one of the most expensive beans in the world.
Rome, Italy (and anywhere, Italy)
Obviously. Coffee has well and truly become part of the Italian culture since its introduction in the 16th century. You will find no shortage of java here, with espresso available pretty much everywhere you turn, but there are unwritten rules as to how to take your coffee in Italy.
For example, a cappuccino is only to be drunk at breakfast, and espresso has a place at the end of every meal, no matter what time of day.
Learn more about these fascinating cities in our Destination Guides, where you will find lots of handy tips to help you plan your next trip.
Author’s Bio: Courtney Gahan is a serial expat, traveller and freelance writer who has bartered with Moroccan marketeers, seen the sun rise at Angkor Wat and elbowed her way through crowds on NYE in NYC.
