Where to Find Excellent Specialty Coffee in Portland, Oregon
Portland has played a huge role in my (Matt here!) coffee journey from Keurig to home espresso. I live in Portland and consume WAY too much caffeine, and I’m here to be your guide to help you find a great cup of coffee, whether you’re looking to spend too much on a fancy Panamanian gesha, or are looking for cool, inventive specialty lattes.
My coffee journey, at least the interesting part, began in Portland.
In college, I was introduced to the euphoria that accompanies that first sip of coffee in the morning.
At that point, I was using a shoddy batch brewer that I probably found on the street or something.
After college (and, more importantly, once I was employed), I graduated to a Keurig machine.
Then I went to Portland for the first time. Specifically, to Coava Coffee, where I had an Ethiopian coffee (Kilenso) that I still remember to this day. It was bright, juicy, berry-y, and was so incredibly different from any other cup of coffee I had ever had in my life.
From that moment onwards, I was all aboard the discovery train when it comes to coffee. Some (read: Alysha) would say I was all aboard the train to becoming a coffee geek.
One of the things I love about Portland – and I talk about this all the time – is that, compared to other major metropolitan areas on the west coast, we have a lower cost of living.
Combine that with the food cart and pop-up culture that exists here and you have a recipe for innovation (particularly in the food and drink space).
There’s nothing I love more than watching an owner/operator doing their thing and talking about what they’re passionate about, and I can’t think of an American city that is a better place to do that than Portland across a wide range of industries.
In Portland today, there are an absurd number of places to get good coffee, and this is by no means an exhaustive list.
Just about every coffee shop that has stayed in business here has cleared a pretty high bar for coffee already. At this point, you can essentially walk down any street in Portland and get a solid cup.
In this guide, I’m going to take you through my take on the best coffee shops in Portland that stand out to me for one reason or another – usually because of an experience that you won’t find elsewhere or a unique approach to coffee – and explain why I think they deserve a place on my list.
By the end, I’m hoping you’ll have discovered at least one or two new spots to add to your list, and that you’ll visit those places and have a mind-blowing cup of coffee and a pleasant experience chatting with the barista.
Sound good to you? Let’s get into it.
Disclaimer: Some of the links in this post, like hotel links, are affiliate links, meaning at no additional cost to you, we make a little bit of money if you click through and book. That being said, we would never recommend something to you that we don’t stand behind 100%.
Where to Find Great Specialty Coffee in Portland
Now, let’s get into the places where you’ll go beyond the “16 oz drip to-go” and find great specialty coffee.
In terms of the process for putting together this guide, it’s a little different than usual because of the fact that I live in Portland, which means my knowledge of the city’s coffee scene is generally deeper than other cities I may visit and write about.
Before my trips abroad, I do tons of research on coffee shops involving big Excel spreadsheets and priority rankings so that I make sure to hit the places I’m most excited about.
Since I live here, I do my best to stay up-to-date with the coffee scene and visit new places that open up because I’m always in search of a cool new coffee experience.
It’s also worth noting that most of my best finds come from asking baristas in my favorite shops for their recommendations, which almost always helps me uncover a new place or two to add to my list.
I’d highly recommend you do that yourself if you’re interested in finding cool new spots serving up the best coffee in Portland. Especially in a city like Portland, where the coffee and food scenes are much more collaborative and much less combative and competitive than most.
Now, it’s very important to note that the list below reflects one person’s opinion, and that my experience at a coffee shop might differ from yours based on the time at which you visit, the barista on duty, or the specific drink you order.
So, as you read my long monologues on why such and such coffee shop stood out to me, just remember that this list is not the end-all, be-all, but is just one nerd’s opinion on where to find some fun and interesting coffee in Portland.
For example, I have been to one of the shops below on a Wednesday morning at opening and a Saturday morning at 10am, and it was a VASTLY different experience.
I generally do my best to visit at times that are less busy so that I can have those personal interactions with the barista that make the difference between an okay experience and an amazing one.
And now, with all of that context and those caveats out of the way, onto the specific recommendations (which is what you’re here for, I know, but context is important)!
Consider this guide to be a starting point for where to find the best coffee shops in Portland from the perspective of someone who really, really likes coffee and loves to nerd out on specifics like the origin of the beans, the brew method, the ratio used for espresso (something I’ve been getting into at home over the course of the past year or so), and more.
A quick note on my coffee preferences, because it definitely matters: I’m all about the lightly roasted, fruity, floral, and bright coffees. Both as filter, and also as espresso.
I’m an avid home brewer, making several cups of coffee a day either as pour over or as espresso. Some might call my tastes “fancy” or “snobby” (that’s Alysha’s word).
But over the last few years, I’ve figured out what I like, and that’s what I’m always looking for when I’m out trying new coffee shops. That’s the thing about coffee – it all comes down to personal preferences.
PDX Coffee Club
Best for: Perfectly executed coffee-forward and specialty drinks and Joe, the uber-charismatic resident coffee nerd
Over the past 12-18 months, PDX Coffee Club has cemented itself as my absolute favorite place to go get coffee in Portland.
In my opinion, they do all three parts of the coffee experience – the coffee, the specialty drinks, and the service – extremely well, which is sometimes hard to find.
At the moment, they have two locations in Portland, and they have slightly different offerings at each.
They are operating out of a space in Southwest Portland on SW Capitol Highway (here on Google Maps), where you’ll find an interesting mix of U.S. and international roasters, including local staples like Heart alongside more adventurous roasters like Hydrangea (both of which I love).
Recently they opened a new downtown location (they used to have one downtown, but grew out of it) that is exclusively focused on Portland-based roasters.
You might find roasters like Proud Mary, Heart, Elevator, and more. You can find it here on Google Maps.
Both locations also offer their excellent seasonal drink menu, which features things like a mango sticky rice matcha (Alysha’s pick) and their coffee soda (Matt’s favorite in the summer).
However, while the coffee is generally great, part of the reason I love this place is that I just really like Joe, the charismatic owner-operator.
Joe, who has tons and tons of experience in coffee running cafes for Blue Bottle and Proud Mary (among others), is passionate about introducing people to all of the amazing roasters right here in Portland.
This is a place I bring all of my friends and family who are into coffee, and the main reason for that is Joe.
Joe is everything you could possibly want in a barista – friendly, incredibly knowledgeable (hard to find someone more nerdy about coffee than Matt, and I mean that in a good way), and an all-in-all good hang.
On our first visit to the shop more than a year ago, we sat and chatted with Joe for nearly an hour, covering everything from the optimal mineral content for brewing coffee to what milks are the best for frothing to the ins and outs of managing a cafe, which is the side of coffee that I am decidedly less knowledgeable about, but very interested in learning about.
So, in summary, the two reasons to come here are to try coffees from some great roasters prepared by a true expert, and to experience some of the most friendly, open service in Portland.
Less and More
Best for: Unique specialty lattes/drinks, unique bus shelter location, and pour over options
If you’re walking down SW 5th Avenue in Portland towards Pioneer Courthouse Square, you might notice a line forming outside of what appears to be an old school former bus shelter on the west side of the street.
I had walked by this location several times before curiosity got the best of me. Even Alysha, who knows how much I enjoy a new coffee shop experience, pointed it out to me multiple times before I ever got around to stopping in.
And now, Less and More has catapulted to somewhere near the top of my list of favorite coffee shops in the city (as evidenced by its placement here high up on the list).
At a very, very high level, there are two archetypes of coffee shops – those that lean into specialty coffee, with fancy pour over options and single origin espresso, and those that lean more into the specialty latte side of things.
In my experience, it’s rare to find both of those things done really, really well in one place.
I would argue that Less and More, started by Ryan Jie Jiang who came to Portland from L.A. in search of a place where he could actually afford to start his own shop, is top tier in both of those aspects.
I have had the pleasure of chatting with Ryan over morning coffee a couple of times now, nerding out about coffee and sharing favorite coffee shops around the country.
He asked me where to go in Seattle, and my immediate answer was Sound and Fog in West Seattle, which tops my list of the best coffee shops in Seattle.
I asked him about L.A.’s coffee scene, and he pointed me to a few new places that I had never heard of, along with Dayglow and Kumquat/Loquat, two of my favorites.
In a city (world, really) where it’s getting harder and harder to find single cup pour over brews (which totally makes sense given the time and skill/training it takes to do them well in a busy cafe setting), it’s refreshing to see a list of 4-5 single origin pour over coffee options.
The second location, which is a storefront just off of Pioneer Courthouse Square, only opened up in the past year, is the place to go for their pour over options (they don’t serve them out of the original bus shelter location).
They use an April Brewer – a flat bottom brewer that comes from Copenhagen and is my favorite of the many flat bottom options out there on the market today – and this is the first time I’ve seen one used in North America.
The simplicity of the pour structure used with the April probably contributes to their ability to pull it off.
Over three visits to the shop, I tried three different single origin coffees. I started with a funky anaerobic coffee from Yunnan in China, which is an origin that I rarely see in Portland, a gesha from Finca la Bastilla in Nicaragua, and an incredible Acevedo Pink Bourbon that was, as the barista put it, like fruit punch.
The specialty drinks are the other standout here. They include a few more standard drinks, like a tiramisu or Spanish latte, but the highlights are absolutely the more eclectic concoctions inspired by aspects of Ryan’s background and experience with Korean and Chinese cultures.
The custard cream latte, while rich and basically dessert in a cup, is a fantastic blend of flavors and textures (even Alysha, a coffee hater, enjoyed trying it), and bringing in ingredients that you don’t often see in specialty lattes, like soybean powder or mugwort.
For what it’s worth, this is one of the places I brought my older brother when he was in town.
He is, of course, the elder coffee geek, and I brought him here specifically for the pink bourbon that tastes like fruit punch, and the Enjoyme Latte, which combines soybean powder and their house made custard cream (which, as I said above, is a delight).
Given the convenient location downtown, I would absolutely recommend a stop here if you’re into coffee and want to try something new and fresh.
Heart Coffee Roasters
Best for: Clean, lightly roasted, fruit-forward washed coffees
Heart Coffee is another one of the OG’s of Portland’s coffee scene, and I distinctly remember visiting their location downtown (now closed, sadly) on every trip to Portland in the 2010’s.
Today, they’re a fairly prolific wholesale roaster – I’ve seen their beans in coffee shops all over the country – with two cafes in Portland.
Their flagship is on E Burnside, and they also have a cozy cafe down south on Woodstock.
If I’m being completely honest, I sort of fell out of love with Heart for a while during my coffee journey.
Here’s the thing about Heart – they roast somewhere in the light/medium range (which I realize is kind of nebulous) and they focus on very clean, washed coffees with fruit-forward profiles.
You aren’t going to find coffees on their menu that lean into the newer processing methods that have since taken the specialty coffee scene by storm.
Over the course of the past few years, I fell in love with those heavily processed coffees and then fell back out of love with them.
At a certain point, some of those coffees all start to taste the same, regardless of origin or varietal. It’s fun, but I much prefer washed coffees these days.
As you might imagine, that means I found my way back to Heart. And they’re my favorite coffee roaster in Portland at the moment.
Usually, I’m hesitant to order drip coffee that has been sitting in a carafe for hours and hours, but at Heart they have it really dialed in and they turn it over fairly often.
Pro tip: If you buy a bag of beans, you get a cup of drip coffee for free!
They generally have a couple of options in terms of beans for espresso, including a single origin option that leans more fruity.
The other thing to know about Heart is that they’re very much focused on the coffee – you aren’t going to find a super robust menu of seasonal specialty drinks (though they do have some nice lattes – namely cardamom and hazelnut), along with staples like chai and matcha.
One thing that I do appreciate is that they recently started offering pour over using the NextLevel Pulsar at their Woodstock location (weekdays only), where they’ll have a couple of coffees available to try as pour over (versus batch brew, which is what they’ve normally had until very recently).
I’ve been twice for the pourover specifically, and both times the coffee was great AND the staff were super friendly and willing to talk me through their process and brewing method (which I have yet to replicate at home).
Push X Pull
Best for: Experimental processes and fun, fruit bombs roasted in Portland
Right after Heart, which exclusively focuses on clean, washed coffees, we have Push x Pull, which is probably the most adventurous coffee roaster in Portland.
They source exclusively natural, honey, and anaerobic process coffees, which is the kind of coffee that pushes the boundaries of what coffee can be and may be most likely to give people that have less experience with specialty coffee the kind of mindblowing experience that sent me down the rabbit hole.
I want to raise my hand here and acknowledge my bias because, as I just covered, I’m just not really into the anaerobic craze that we’re currently in the middle of (at least at the time of writing).
As a result, a place like Push x Pull – which exclusively focuses on the types of coffee that I do not prefer – is naturally (ha) going to fall down any list that I create.
However, I’ve been to Push x Pull a couple of times in the recent past – both to their original cafe on Stark and their roasting space that only recently became open to the public on Market (November 2024) – and both times I have been impressed with the coffee I got.
On this most recent visit, I stopped by their roasting space on Market, and because I was the only one there, I got to have a nice chat with the barista.
The barista was enthusiastic, walking me through their coffee lineup and the coffees they had on bar, and I ended up buying a bag of their natural process Kenyan coffee because of their strong recommendation.
The drip coffee I had was a honey process from Honduras, and the word the barista used to describe it was “raspberry.” Which was a perfect description because it was sweet and tart. It also had an interesting “toasted” flavor that was almost like brioche, which was a great complement to the raspberry note.
Their drip is dialed in, and while they do have pour over on their menu, I don’t think they have a dedicated barista that only focuses on pour over, which means the drip coffee is probably your best bet, especially when it’s busy.
Pour over just takes so much time and focus that when the barista is trying to do other stuff, it’s easy to get a cup that isn’t up to the same quality of the standard drip.
Source: I used to order a lot of pour over at cafes and I’d say roughly 50% of the time it was fairly far off in terms of extraction – now I almost exclusively do drip.
Nerd note: they roast on a Loring, which is relatively rare in Portland (at least as far as I’ve ever seen or heard).
Their more atmospheric cafe is the one on Stark which is built out as a cafe, not as a roasting space, and is the one I’d recommend if you’re visiting or it’s your first time going to Push x Pull.
It’s on the ground floor of one of those all-glass new apartment buildings, and the space is very “industrial chic” with high ceilings and exposed pipes.
It gets really nice light in the early morning because the huge windows face southeast and bring in all sorts of golden rays.
They generally have two coffees available on espresso – one more tame (at least as far as their lineup goes, which is definitely on the adventurous end of the spectrum) and one more expressive – along with a coffee on drip and some coffees available as pour over.
Proud Mary
Best for: Trying fancy coffees on pour over or espresso and a fun brunch menu
When I want a special cup of coffee, I go to the Proud Mary cafe on Alberta. It’s the place I recommend to all the coffee lovers in my life who are coming to Portland.
In fact, as I’m writing this, I have just gotten back from Proud Mary where I had a cup of Yemeni coffee from their “Deluxe” tier that was very nice.
Proud Mary is based in Melbourne, Australia, and before we get into what their Portland cafe is like, I want to briefly touch on how my trip to Melbourne way back when impacted my coffee journey.
Australian cafe culture is world-famous. Chocolate-dusted cappuccino (which is the best kind of cappuccino, really), avocado toast (believe it or not, our trip to Australia is where we first discovered avocado toast).
But Melbourne is on a whole different level. I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that Melbourne is the best coffee city in the world, and that is where Proud Mary hails from.
After our trip to Australia, I quickly descended into the rabbit hole that is coffee, and went from making my morning cup with a Keurig (which, looking back, is a horrible decision because of all the waste they produce) to owning a temperature-controlled kettle and all the pour over contraptions.
Their only location in the US is their coffee shop in Portland on Alberta Street. And it’s my favorite place to go in Portland for coffee that I’m not making myself (though I also regularly buy their coffee for my morning coffee ritual at home).
I’m focused on the coffee here, so I’m not going to touch on their brunch / food menu. Their coffee menu is split into at least three parts.
First, there are the espresso-based drinks – your cappuccinos, lattes, and macchiatos (PS order the Magic, which is a slightly different take on a cappuccino or macchiato that is basically only found in Melbourne).
Don’t be surprised when your cappuccino comes dusted with chocolate, which is how they do it in Australia (and other parts of the world).
They also have a selection of single origin coffees that can be prepared as espresso or Americano.
Next there are the filter coffees.
They have a rotating selection of batch-brew coffees – and they have multiple to choose from, which I appreciate – along with a selection of a few coffees that can be done as a pour over.
When I was there, they had a coffee from Papua New Guinea processed three different ways (anaerobic washed, anaerobic natural, and anaerobic honey), and you could get a flight to try all three, which is a fun way to experience the breadth of flavors coffee can bring.
Last, but certainly not least, are the deluxe pour over options. These are going to run you $10-15 a cup, but they are coffees that you basically can’t get anywhere else.
If you’re into coffee and want to try something unique and exclusive, it’s a fun experience.
I tried the Yemeni coffee, which was recommended by the barista, and enjoyed it. Is paying $15 for a cup of coffee an everyday thing? Definitely not. Is it worth doing once? Sure!
Electrica
Best for: Creative tea and coffee seasonal drinks, a stellar tea menu, and rotating pour over coffee from roasters all over the world
We went to Electrica on their opening weekend a couple of years ago, and it has been a lot of fun to see what Seiji (who is a great Instagram follow if you’re into discovering new places to eat and drink in Portland) has done with the place over the time they’ve been there.
Why do we like it? Because it’s a place where both coffee lovers and tea lovers – which essentially describes Alysha and I – can both walk away satisfied.
In many cases, the tea offerings at a coffee shop are somewhere between lackluster and average.
Which totally makes sense, because the baristas, owners, and everyone involved are usually focused on providing the best coffee they can.
The reverse is true at dedicated tea shops, like Smith Tea in Portland.
On our first visit, Alysha was interested in a cold brew sencha that they had, and we chatted with one of the owners (who I later realized was Seiji) about that cold brew tea, and he explained that the cold brew process takes away some of the less pleasant “grassy” notes, and leaves you with a cup full of the more delicate flavors you’ll find in sencha.
I have to admit, as someone that doesn’t really enjoy green tea that much, I was into it. So was Alysha, who went back for seconds and tried the Hojicha latte too.
We’ve now been to Elecrica many times, either to try their new seasonal lattes (which are often tea-forward and Alysha gets very excited when new ones are released) or the new coffee roaster they have for pour over (I’ve had Elm from Seattle, Black and White from North Carolina, and Kurasu from Japan).
Oh yeah, the space is beautiful too – it’s in the Schoolhouse building (home of Schoolhouse Electric’s showroom) with high ceilings, an industrial-chic vibe, and lots of good seating (it’s a good place to work).
Adapt Cafe
Best for: Rotating selection of European roasters on espresso and Aeropress
In basically every city I’ve ever been to, there’s always one coffee shop that stands out from the rest and instantly becomes a favorite of mine.
In Portland, that place is undoubtedly Adapt Cafe, a relatively new shop on Milwaukie Avenue just south of Powell.
Here’s why I fell in love.
As you read through this guide, you’ll quickly start to see that Portland is an excellent coffee city. On just about every block in the core of the city, you’ll be able to find a really, really solid cup of coffee. It’s ridiculous.
However, the downside is that a lot of the coffee shops here are essentially the same.
To explain why I say that, let me take a second to cover how I think about different kinds of coffee shops.
There are essentially three kinds of coffee shops in my mind.
First, there are the roasters, who roast their own coffee and serve it in their cafes.
Then there are the “monogamists” that work with one roaster, and use their coffee in their cafes (in Portland, you see this a lot, and they’re usually working with Coava or Heart).
The last type, and one that I’ve struggled to find in Portland, is the curators. They bring in beans from different roasters (bonus points if it’s from roasters around the world!) and serve different coffees than you find at most of the normal coffee shops in any given city.
As soon as I walked into Adapt and saw Manhattan Coffee Roasters from Rotterdam on the shelf, I knew I was in for a treat.
Nick, the owner/operator was behind the bar, and introduced me to their options.
I went with a drip coffee (Colombian beans roasted by Manhattan), and sat in the corner as Nick talked shop with another coffee professional.
His passion for trying something a little different is the energy behind the shop, and in my ten minutes or so of chatting with him, I loved his approach and enthusiasm.
They work with different local artists and vendors, some of which they sell in the shop, some they host popups for.
You’ll find beautiful ceramics (from Storied Objects), lovely flower arrangements (from Ruysch), and more. Nick also mentioned that he has plans to expand this part of the offering as time goes on.
Anyway, if you want the chance to try a roaster you’ve never seen before, Adapt is the place to go in Portland.
Prince Coffee
Best for: Rotating European roasters, housemade specialty syrups/drinks, and vibes
The thing I like about Prince is their evolution over the past few years from – and I mean this in the best way possible – “just another good cafe in Portland” to a destination for coffee lovers looking for some of the best coffee in the city using beans both from near and far.
And I’d like to take a second to focus on the “far” part of that statement, because it’s something that I think is lacking in Portland (for a variety of reasons that are a little too complex to get into here).
Look, I’m a big sucker for a “coffee curator” – a shop that doesn’t roast their own beans, but brings in beans from roasters on a rotating basis – which is why I like PDX Coffee Club so much!
The reason I go out for coffee is to try something new – either a new, exciting coffee, or a fun take on a specialty latte, etc.
The one thing that I think is missing in Portland’s coffee scene is a cafe that curates light roast beans from around the world, which is something that the other major cities on the west coast – Vancouver (Revolver and Oidé), Seattle (Sound and Fog), San Francisco (the Coffee Movement), and L.A. (multiple) all have covered.
Prince is in a little bit of a middle ground here.
They usually have either Heart or Proud Mary (or both) on offer, along with a rotating third roaster that skews international.
For example, Prince has been the only place I’ve ever seen Kawa Coffee (one of my favorite roasters in Paris) in Portland.
Aside from being a place to discover new coffees from around the world, Prince has three other things going for it that I like.
First, their specialty lattes are always on point thanks to their homemade syrups (which is different than a lot of cafes that will use premade syrups).
Their stroop latte is incredible, and I only ordered it because the barista was gushing about how much they loved it on one of my recent visits (I also really enjoy their Anijsmelk latte, which features star anise).
Second, their spaces are beautiful! It is truly a pleasure to spend an hour working in their cafes.
Third, they have an impressive array of coffee brewing, serving, and various other equipment to purchase.
Prince has two locations in Portland these days. Their original location is in Northeast Portland up on NE Fremont St, and they have a newer cafe down in Northwest Portland (across the street from my dentist).
Portland Cà Phê
Best for: Creative seasonal drinks and specialty lattes, their Cà Phê Sữa Đá, and trying robusta beans
Cà Phê is another great example of a different take on what coffee means, which is an exciting trend that I’ve been seeing all over the world over the past few years.
Considering my favorite thing about coffee is exploration and trying new things – whether it’s beans, processing, or specialty lattes – I, for one, welcome this trend in specialty coffee with open arms.
As you might have guessed by the name, Cà Phê is exclusively focused on Vietnamese coffee.
In this context, that means two things.
They do serve what is colloquially known as Vietnamese coffee (Cà Phê Sữa Đá) the tantalizing combination of drip coffee (made with a phin filter) and condensed milk.
But what I think is more unique is the fact that all the coffee they serve is grown in Vietnam, and they have a couple of different bean offerings (including a robusta, which is a variety of coffee that you don’t see all that often in specialty coffee here in the US).
Vietnam is a HUGE producer of coffee, and they’re the second biggest producing country by volume.
But you’d never, ever know that if you were going by the countries that you see on most specialty coffee bags around the world.
If they happen to have the robusta on drip or espresso, it’s worth trying because it’s a unique opportunity to try a coffee varietal that thrives in Vietnam, and is likely going to be a bigger and bigger part of the specialty coffee industry as the climate continues to change and make producing coffee more difficult.
But that’s a conversation for a different day.
The point is that their focus on Vietnamese coffee is very unique, and is absolutely worth trying.
If they happen to have the robusta on drip or espresso, it’s worth ordering to try something that you don’t really see everyday, and when you do see it, it’s usually not roasted with the care and quality that you’ll find here.
It’s worth watching this video on their website about their origins and mission.
However, the standout here (I think) is the inventive specialty menu and their rotating seasonal menu.
The specialty menu, which is always available, includes things like the aforementioned Cà Phê Sữa and an Ube Latte.
The seasonal menu is where the magic happens. Each quarter, they release a new menu of seasonal specials that are always a highlight of our visits.
You can usually find them on Instagram (they post a beautiful watercolor rendering of them on the feed).
All of the focus on coffee from Vietnam is tied together by the massive map of Vietnam that greets you as you walk in the door of their cafes.
Currently, they have a location in Southeast (on SE Holgate) and in Northeast on MLK Blvd.
Never Coffee Lab
Best for: Specialty lattes that are closer to fancy cocktails than your normal vanilla latte
The thing I love about Never Coffee Lab is their inventive signature lattes. Sure, their regular espresso-based drinks are great too, but if we’re talking about things that stand out, it’s 100% their signature drinks.
Oh, and their design aesthetic. They have two shops – one on Belmont towards Mount Tabor, and one in the heart of Downtown Portland, and both are immaculately designed.
From the colorblocked coffee bags to the minimalist-but-colorful menu and mugs. It’s fantastic.
They also roast their own beans, and have a bunch of blends in colorful bags, and single origin offerings in the white bags.
I’ve been to both of their cafes multiple times each, and it’s the place I take people who like coffee, but not the super nerdy and intense single-origin-talk-about-anaerobic-science kind.
I’m not usually one to go for sweet, flavored lattes, but when in Rome, right? I asked the (very friendly) barista what they recommended between the Midnight Oil (fennel seed, star anise, black licorice) and the Hunny (jasmine, dark chocolate, wildflower honey) and landed on the Midnight Oil because it feels more unique.
I can confirm that their lattes are, in fact, delicious.
Here are the different flavors they have available at the time of writing:
- Pop: Matcha, tart cherry, Market lime
- Hunny: Flowering jasmine, dark chocolate, wildflower honey
- Yuzu & Salt: Yuzu, sansho pepper, burned sugar, coconut cream
- Midnight Oil: Sweet fennel seed, star anise, black licorice
- Oregon: Cascade hops, dulce de leche, Jacobsen Sea salt
Alysha (a coffee hater) also tried the Pop (tart cherry, matcha, lime) and it was okay (most of the cherry flavor ended up at the bottom we realized after drinking 90% of the drink).
Overall, highly recommend Never Coffee if you’re looking for something a little different, and skew more towards ordering flavored lattes.
Honorable Mentions
This guide used to be a LOT longer (because there is a truly mind blowing number of great coffee spots in Portland).
In order to streamline it and capture some new options and concepts that I think are worth keeping track of, I added this “honorable mentions” category.
Guilder: Guilder – a Princess Bride themed cafe – has two coffee shops. They have “east” (their flagship on NE Fremont and 24th) and “west” (inside Powell’s Books), and both are lovely spots to grab coffee.
The reason I think Guilder deserves to be on this list is their specialty latte – the Miracle Pill (an overt reference to the Princess Bride).
It’s a latte made with a spicy syrup featuring cinnamon, clove, and everything nice (and a panela cold brew syrup).
Spella: As a lover of all things Italian (Italy is my favorite European travel destination, as evidenced by all of our Italy guides), I was tickled to find a place in Portland that serves up good old fashioned rich Italian espresso.
Which, I know, is completely contrary to my stated coffee preferences above, but “coffee e cornetto” at the bar is a ritual in Italy that I very much enjoy.
They pull ristretto with a lever machine, which is as old-fashioned as it gets, and I’m here for it.
Bialy Bird: One of Alysha’s favorite breakfast options (definitely NOT gluten free) up in Northeast (for now) also has one of my favorite coffee programs in the city.
They serve Apollon’s Gold coffees – a Japanese roaster that’s hard to find here in the U.S. – made exclusively as pour over.
Great fruit-forward coffees, and the bialy breakfast sandwiches are a top five breakfast to eat in Portland.
The Best Coffee in Portland, Mapped
To help you visualize where all of these shops are located, we’ve put together this handy map with all of our favorites!
