21 September 2023
WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) — Coffee.
It’s as American as apple pie, although neither of them was created here. Still, coffee became the ubiquitous American daily beverage following the Boston Tea Party in 1773.
According to the National Coffee Association, 62% of Americans drink coffee every day. Seven in 10 Americans drink coffee at least once a week.
The average American consumes nearly 10 pounds of coffee a year. However, we rank 25th in the world for coffee consumption. Norwegians beat everyone, consuming an average of 26.45 pounds of coffee a year per person, according to worldatlas.com.
A quick Google search will show you there are a ridiculous number of places to sit down and enjoy a good cup of coffee in Wichita. That is not even mentioning all the coffee roasters, drive-thrus, chains, and gas stations you can get a cup from.
However, Wichita still ranks near the bottom for coffee. It’s not because of the quality, though.
The website WalletHub looked at cities across the country to determine which were the “Best Coffee Cities in America.” They used criteria like the price of packaged coffee, the price for a cappuccino, average spending on coffee, the number of coffee drinkers, the number of shops, and the price for a cup, along with multiple other factors.
Wichita didn’t make the top 25. It didn’t even make the top 50. It came in 78th out of 100 cities ranked by WalletHub.
Surprisingly, Seattle, the city famous for coffee shops, flannel, grunge, and Starbucks, is not number 1. That honor belongs to San Fransisco.
Number 2 is Portland, Oregon. Number 3 is Seattle.
Orlando, Florida, and Honolulu, Hawaii, round out the rest of the top 5. Toledo, Ohio, came in dead last at 100.
To view the report, including the criteria used to rank each city, click here.