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Portland's passion for fine ingredients and careful craft extends into coffee cups.
Since before Starbucks spilled across the map from its headquarters in the Pacific Northwest, Portland’s coffee culture has kept locals caffeinated with a mix of independent roasters and small cafés, each brewing up espressos, Americanos and lattes with beans from around the world. And if you know where to go, you can get a mugful of its rich history for yourself.
Start with a step back in time at Jim & Patty’s Coffee, a friendly neighborhood haunt where the owners man the till and serve up hot drinks like their spicy Habanero Mocha and their Peanut Butter Fudge Mocha. You may hear people refer to this shop as “Coffee People,” which was the name of Jim and Patty’s beloved chain, which kept Portland caffeinated from 1983-1998 (and lived on under different ownership until mid-2016).
Coffee Culture
Sample Portland's coffee scene with these guides to local roasters and cafes.
Downtown Portland Coffee Crawl
Portland’s bean scene is as accessible as it is diverse. In fact, you don’t have to leave downtown to sample some of the best cups.
Portland’s Bison Coffeehouse Celebrates Indigenous Culture
Meet Loretta Guzman, owner of Bison Coffeehouse in Northeast Portland, the city’s only Native-owned coffee shop.
Quiet Places Made for Reading
Pick up a winning read at one of Portland’s many independent bookstores and curl up in a cozy corner of one of these eight local coffee shops.
Picking up Coffee People’s torch, Stumptown Coffee Roasters kept Portland on the coffee map when owner Duane Sorenson started sourcing, roasting and delivering his own beans from his Southeast Division coffeehouse. With five Portland locations (and many other shops serving up his roasts), their beloved beans have brought living wages to coffee farmers worldwide through a financially transparent supply chain. While that sounds good, the end product tastes even better — whether it’s a bottled cold brew, espresso, or made with a Chemex, their Costa Rican, Ethiopian, and Indonesian blends each have distinct tastes and can be purchased by the bag to make at home.
Coava Coffee Roasters owner Michael Higgins started making his artisanal brews in his garage in 2008, but now the company’s Southeast Portland brew bar, located adjacent to their roastery, offers coffee flights, so drinkers can taste the difference in their cups. Since 2009, Heart Roasters has been perfecting the ideal coffee one cup at a time, using an aeropress, precise timing and exact measurements, and they’ll show you how seven days a week at their eastside coffee lab.
Unique Coffee Spots
Sample flavors from around the world and unique coffee concoctions at these one-of-a-kind cafes in Portland.
Though Water Ave. Coffee officially opened in 2009, the father-son team behind this Eastside roaster has a longstanding history with coffee: Bruce Milletto has spent a lifetime shaping the industry as a Specialty Coffee Association of America “Coffee Luminary,” and opened the American Barista and Coffee School in 2003 alongside his son Matt Milletto, who’s currently the president of the Oregon Coffee Board.
If you miss out on these roasters, their brews are also available at coffeehouses around town. Barista, with gorgeous shops perfect for people-watching in the Pearl District, Alberta Street and downtown, pours masterfully made espressos from a variety of roasters. Case Study Coffee, meanwhile, began as an espresso catering company but has since evolved into a pair of locations (downtown and on East Burnside) where small-batch roasted beans and house-made syrups make cups worth savoring.
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