☕ Coffee guide

How to Find Great Coffee in a New City

A simple, honest system for skipping the chains and finding the local gem — wherever you land.

I travel a fair amount, and for years I kept losing the same twenty minutes in every new city — standing on a sidewalk, thumbing through a map app, trying to figure out which of the nearby coffee shops was actually good and which was just the closest chain. Over time I worked out a system. Here's how I find a genuinely great cup almost anywhere, usually on the first try.

1. Filter out the chains first

The single biggest upgrade is simply ignoring the chains. They dominate map results because they're everywhere, not because they're the best coffee in town. The good stuff is almost always independent — a local roaster, a family café, the spot the neighborhood actually loves. (This is the whole reason Crema defaults to independent-only.)

2. Read the signs of a good café

A few tells, in rough order of reliability:

• They roast their own, or name who does. A café that lists the roaster and the origin cares about the cup.
• The menu is short. A focused espresso menu usually beats a wall of 40 sugary drinks.
• It's busy with locals, not just tourists or people there only for the wifi.
• The espresso looks dialed. If the shots and milk drinks coming across the bar look careful, they probably are.

3. Order something that exposes the craft

If you want to know whether a place can really make coffee, order a cortado — espresso with a little steamed milk and nowhere to hide. A flat white or a plain espresso works too. Save the caramel-drizzle drinks for when you already trust the place.

4. Use ratings the smart way

Don't just look at the star rating — look at the number of reviews next to it. A 4.8 from 60 reviews is often a truer signal of a beloved local gem than a 4.4 from 6,000 (which is usually a high-traffic chain). Crema highlights exactly these well-loved, lesser-known spots as "Hidden Gems."

5. Ask a local — or the barista

If you're already holding a decent coffee, ask the person who made it where they drink on their day off. Baristas know the scene better than any algorithm, and they're usually happy to send you somewhere great.

6. Time it right

The best cafés fill up. If you want a seat and the A-team on bar, go a little before the mid-morning rush. And when in doubt in a hot city, get it iced — a good cold brew travels well.

That's the whole system: skip the chains, read the signals, order something honest, and trust well-loved local spots over high-traffic ones. Do that and you'll drink well in a city you've never visited before.