Fortune Magazine published an extensive feature profile of Blue Bottle Coffee as well as a a companion list of the best coffee companies in America, with the assistance of industry veteran Ken Davids.
What I like most about this list of best coffee companies is that is mixes more popular and conventional ‘top coffee’ consumer picks (Stumptown, Intelligentsia, Cafe Grumpy) with industry-insider legends (PT’s Coffee, Klatch Coffee, George Howell) and some lesser-known companies like Muddy Dog and Temple to show a nice cross-section of the U.S. (Mainland) coffee scene.
Nation’s Best Coffee Companies
Bard Coffee, Portland, ME
Barrington Coffee Roasting Co., Lee, MA
Blue Bottle Coffee Roasters, Oakland, CA
Cafe Grumpy, Brooklyn, NY
Café Moto, San Diego, CA
George Howell Coffee, Acton, MA
Intelligensia Coffee & Tea, Chicago, IL
Joe the Art of Coffee, New York, NY
JBC Coffee Roasters, Madison, WI
Kaldi’s Coffee Roasting Company, Clayton, MO
Klatch Coffee, Upton, CA
Muddy Dog Roasting, Morrisville, NC
PT’s Coffee Roasting, Topeka, KS
Ritual Coffee Roasters, San Francisco, CA
Stumptown Coffee Roasters, Portland, OR
Temple Coffee, Sacramento, CA
Think Coffee, New York, NY
With so many great small to mid-side roasters operating in the U.S. right now, it’s extraordinarily difficult to pare down a list to the prime 17 (after all, it is a prime number); however, this list is far better than most that I’ve seen before in consumer publications and gets my thumbs up of approval.