Best coffee shop? Five in North Carolina rank among the nation’s favorites
If you’re searching for an ideal place to get your caffeine fix, you may be in luck.
That’s because North Carolina is home to five of the nation’s best coffee shops, according to the review website Yelp. Here are the cafes that rank among the top 100 in the country:
- Enderly Coffee Co. in Charlotte at No. 32
- Hole Doughnuts in Asheville at No. 66
- A Special Blend in Greensboro at No. 73
- Esteamed Coffee in Cary at No. 91
- Hidden Grounds Coffee in Wilmington at No. 93
To create the list of “most buzzworthy” coffee shops across the United States, Yelp in a news release said it studied places that sell cups of joe. It “ranked those spots using a number of factors, including the total volume and ratings of reviews.”
“Across the US, java lovers are lining up at their favorite coffee shops for a small bite and the latest elevated coffee experiences: trendy new flavors; insta-worthy latte art; the freshest beans roasted in-house; exotic coffee styles from around the world; and sometimes just a comforting sense of community,” Yelp wrote in its Sept. 24 report.
The list was published ahead of National Coffee Day, which falls on Sept. 29 this year. But in North Carolina, customers have praised the winning coffee shops month after month.
Why fans love the NC coffee shops
Of the places that people loved the most, Enderly Coffee Co. ranked the highest in North Carolina. On Yelp, some customers raved about the seasonal lattes, which currently include salted maple and Biscoff pumpkin pie, according to an online menu. Several fans couldn’t get enough, saying they took home coffee beans from the shop on Tuckaseegee Road in Charlotte.
In Asheville, some Yelp users said they loved drinking coffee or seeing treats being made fresh at Hole Doughnuts. The business earned recognition months after it was named one of the nation’s top places to get doughnuts, McClatchy News reported in June.
Also ranking among the nation’s best coffee shops were A Special Blend in Greensboro and Esteamed Coffee in downtown Cary, just west of Raleigh. On Yelp, some customers raved about the missions of the two businesses, both of which focus on employing people with disabilities.
Rounding out the list of fan-favorite coffee shops in North Carolina was Hidden Grounds Coffee. The Wilmington business on its website said it has a “secret garden” and dinosaur decor, which charmed several Yelp users.
Nationwide, Yelp said the No. 1 cafe was Yaw Farm Coffee Roaster in Las Vegas.
