The Best Independent Coffee Shops in America

Miami’s Eternity Coffee Roasters is incredibly meticulous about their coffee. All their coffee is grown on their family-owned farms in Antioquia, Colombia, and it’s processed at a mill they own in Medellín. The green coffee beans are then individually scanned for imperfections, and hundreds of cups are sampled by their Q grader and quality expert before being approved. The green beans are then shipped to the roastery in Miami, where they’re roasted, brewed, and served. It’s one of the few completely vertically integrated coffee operations in the country, and the end result is a truly spectacular cup. 

Long-time friends Jonathan Moore and Nicholas Pidek chose an appropriate name for the coffee shop they founded in 2014: its mission is to foster its community by partnering with other local businesses, civic leaders, and non-profit organizations and hosting events, concerts, conversations, reading and discussion groups. It’s expanded from Owosso to Flint and East Lansing, bringing a positive impact wherever it goes. They’re roasting their own coffee in-house, and selling a wide variety of blends and single-origins for every taste.

Housed in a sleek and rustic space with exposed beams in San Francisco, Four Barrel Coffee has forged relationships with farmers and mill workers in Latin America, Indonesia, and East Africa, sources of their green coffee beans. They roast them in-house on a vintage German-made coffee roaster, and serve a variety of coffees by the cup and in specialty drinks. Offerings include Guatemalan Buena Vista, Ethiopian Worka Wuri, and Kenyan Gura espresso.

A labor of love for founders Trey and Mallory Woods, Hoboken Coffee Roasters opened its doors inside what was previously an abandoned old garage in 2012. The Woods spent years converting it into one of the most welcoming spaces in the historic town of Guthrie, and the daily crowds imply that they must be doing something right. They’re roasting single-origin coffees from Colombia, Ethiopia, and Sumatra, and also crafting several blends.

Prince Coffee was founded in 2016 in the Kenton neighborhood of Portland, but it proved to be so popular that they ended up moving into larger digs in Beaumont soon after. It’s a sunny quintessential neighborhood coffee shop, serving a rotating selection of coffees from Heart Coffee Roasters and Proud Mary, both small-batch roasters based in Portland. Along with classic coffee and espresso drinks, they’re also making traditional stroopwafels by hand and serving a lineup of breakfast sandwiches, and there’s a thoughtfully curated retail selection.