The Best Coffee Shops in the West

Rebekah and Wille Yli-Luoma began roasting coffee in Portland in 2009, with the idea that a great cup should highlight the distinct fruit flavors that are found in coffee. Today, they have three retail cafés and a roasting facility in the city, and they’ve built direct relationships with producers in Kenya, Ethiopia, Colombia, Honduras, Mexico, Brazil, and Guatemala, whom they visit multiple times every year. They travel to origin during and at the end of harvest times to show support, assist with quality control, and select the best crops.

Heart Coffee Roasters has a reputation for sourcing some of the best green coffee in the world, and during the roasting process, the focus is on even development throughout the bean to maximize perceived sweetness, without over-roasting or baking the coffee dry. This style of roasting results in pronounced fruit tones and richness with a juicy finish. Every bag of Heart coffee is tagged with a roast date and batch number. The end result? A cup of coffee that simply can’t be improved upon.

Prince Coffee was founded in 2016 in the Kenton neighborhood of Portland, but it proved to be so popular that it 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, the shop is also making traditional stroopwafels by hand and serving a lineup of breakfast sandwiches, and there’s a thoughtfully curated retail selection.

A staple of Seattle’s Fremont neighborhood since 2011, Milstead & Co. is clean, spacious, and inviting and serves coffee from renowned roasters, including Stumptown, Intelligentsia, and Coava. Every coffee and espresso drink is made with care by the team of expert baristas, and they’re complemented by a nice selection of pastries from local bakeries.

“Beyond fair trade and direct trade… we are family trade,” proudly proclaims Peixoto Coffee Roasters. And indeed, the Peixoto family has been growing and harvesting coffee for at least 100 years on the family farm in Brazil, and today the farm is run by third-generation grower José Augusto Peixoto. 

They roast a variety of coffees from their own farm as well as from partners in Costa Rica, Ethiopia, and Colombia, and at the shop they sell them by the bag and serve them in expertly-made espresso drinks, pour-over and drip coffee, and seasonal specials. Be sure to enjoy yours with a fresh locally-made cinnamon roll.

Phin Smith is a warm and welcoming Garden Grove, California, coffee shop that specializes in Vietnamese coffee. Offerings include the District 1 Roast, made with Robusta beans grown in the central highlands of Vietnam, and the Saigon Blend, made with Central Highland Robusta balanced with Arabica.

There are also lots of specialty coffees and teas, including a lavender latte, English-style iced milk tea, and ice-blended coconut coffee. The shop’s Taiwanese sea salt coffee is also worth seeking out for those looking for something a little different.