The weather is definitely changing for the colder in parts of the United States and it's a good time to talk about coffee. A brilliant cup of coffee can be your best friend on chilly days.

We've looked all over the country for these best friends and came up with the 21 best cups of coffee in America.

Twenty-one is an arbitrary number, but the picks are not. We did stay clear of big coffee chains like Starbucks, Seattle's Best and Dunkin' Donuts. It's not that we think we're too cool to be caught in these cookie cutter coffeeterias, but everyone knows what they're getting with a chain cup of coffee.

The cups on this list are special and unique in their own way and most focus on hand-crafted processes and socially aware practices.

The 21 Best Cups of Coffee in America

21. Novo Coffee - Denver - Novo approaches coffee with the same philosophy as oenophiles approach wine: understanding the varieties and origins of beans as well as manipulating different processes. They even describe their coffee like descriptions found on wine lists. The Gololcha has notes of "honey, toasted nuts, slight wild harar earth flavor, gentle and classic for the area."

20. Mugshots - Philadelphia - Another organic, fair trade, B Corporation™ coffee shop, Mugshots sits across from a prison, hence the name. If you're particularly sluggish or want to treat your co-workers to some of the good stuff, get the "Coffee on the Move" in your choice of 96oz. at $14.95 or 160oz. for $22.95

19. Copper Star - Phoenix - Copper Star serves standard coffee drinks, hot and frozen. The locally roasted beans and neighborly service helps the standard transcend into the sublime.

18. Lucky's Cafe - Cleveland - One of the points of the aspirational mission statement at this understated Cleveland cafe sums it up: "We will offer our customers an alternative to the mass produced ...." Mission accomplished.

17. Urth Caffe - Los Angeles - This West Hollywood institution serves their own organically grown coffee and provide unique blends like the licorice-infused Old Grandpa and signature lattes

16. El Diablo - Seattle - The festive colors in Seattle's only Latin-style coffee shop is as invigorating as the enlightening power of the coffee. Go with a Cubano and you can't go wrong.

15. MoKaBe's - St. Louis - Funky coffee shop in the Lou is a popular grazing spot for term paperists, brunchers, vegans and porch fetishists.

14. Coffee to the People - San Francisco - Organic, fair trade and community are the descriptors you'd expect for a coffee shop in Haight-Ashbury.

13. Coffee Slingers - Oklahoma City - In their own words, Coffee Slingers (slang for baristas) is "the coffee coup battling lazy pervasive brown water." Solid lattes, caps, house-made chai and 18-hour cold-brewed coffee are soldiers in their fight, and they're winning.

12. Lamill Coffee Boutique - Los Angeles - Silver Lake is becoming a mecca for gourmet coffee and Lamill is one of the reasons to make a pilgrimage. Table-side coffee service is one of the handful of techniques you can choose and the variety of beans fulfills the boutique promise in the moniker. The decor is the best on this list.

11. Gimme! Coffee - Brooklyn - The Brooklyn outpost of the Ithaca original has no drop off in quality and no foam, preferring to keep the flavor in the coffee.

This Page: Cups 21-11 | Next Page: The Top 10




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