Are you a coffee lover heading to Portland!!?

You are in great luck! Portland coffee is some of the country’s best. They have an excellent coffee scene with amazing roasters and coffee shops in every nook and cranny of the city. While I don’t consider myself to be any kind of expert, I can’t function without my morning cup. I have been drinking a lot of coffee as of late and having just spent the last few months in Portland and able to try out several of the local cafes.

Here are my favourites Portland coffee shops: 

Stumptown

Without having Stumptown in Portland, have you really had any coffee? This longtime Portland roaster is a favourite and it may help that you can find their coffee in better cafes as well as their coffee shops in Seattle, NYC, and LA besides of course their hometown of Portland.

Heart Roaster

An ex-snowboarder turned Portland coffee roaster. I remember Wille Yli-Luoma’s name from snowboard magazines and videos when I was a shreddy wannabe snowboarder and then years later as a coffee lover, I remember hearing that he became a coffee roaster and opened Heart. I love stories like that. Several locations throughout the city.

Coava Coffee

Coava like many roasters started out in a home, more specifically a garage. They became well known for their beans around the Northwest and eventually opened up their own tasting room and espresso bar. Below is their tasting room which also has retail and a great “coffice” if you need one.

Coffee Division

A small little Portland coffee shop on Southeast Division street if you’re in and around that ‘hood.

Barista 

While staying downtown, I could have easily gone to one of the many coffee shops in the area but decide to pop into Barista as it was the closest to my hotel. Glad I did. They use beans from roasters from all over including Bows x Arrows from Victoria! More of a quick pick up spot at their downtown location. Several locations throughout the city.

Ristretto Roasters

I popped into this roaster when I was staying at my friend’s place in the Northeast earlier in the summer. Well done coffee. Good space if you need to do some work and are in this zone.

Albina Press

Popped into here one afternoon for an iced coffee. A great little cafe in the Northeast.

The Fresh Pot

My friend and I met up on NE Mississippi Avenue for lunch and we needed an afternoon pick me up. The Fresh Pot was right there! They have two other locations including one in the Southeast and one in the Southwest.

Experience A Cupping

If you’re super into coffee, you may have gone to a cupping before. Even though I drink tons of coffee I’ve never done it before. I read that Stumptown does daily cuppings at their headquarters, so I decided to go.

What is a cupping?

Here’s some info from Wikipedia:

Coffee cupping, or coffee tasting, is the practice of observing the tastes and aromas of brewed coffee. It is a professional practice but can be done informally by anyone or by professionals known as “Master Tasters”. A standard coffee cupping procedure involves deeply sniffing the coffee, then loudly slurping the coffee so it spreads to the back of the tongue. The coffee taster attempts to measure aspects of the coffee’s taste, specifically the body (the texture or mouthfeel, such as oiliness), sweetness, acidity (a sharp and tangy feeling, like when biting into an orange), flavour (the characters in the cup), and aftertaste. Since coffee beans embody telltale flavours from the region where they were grown, cuppers may attempt to identify the coffee’s origin.

If you are interested in learning more about coffee and flavour profiles, I definitely recommend going to a cupping. It was really interesting to learn more about the whole process and the company itself.

Here are photos from my cupping experience at Stumptown:

I know that there are many more coffee shops in and around the Portland area. I spent a few months there and to be honest, I made coffee at my friend’s apartment. One of my favourite things about the supermarkets in Portland was their bulk coffee beans were roasters like Stumptown, Nossa, etc. I was able to have great coffee in the comfort of my pyjamas!

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What are your favourite roasters/coffee shops in Portland?