How I Judge (April 21, 2025)
What factors go into the rankings? That’s one of the top questions I receive about my efforts.
There are four main factors:
1) The quality of the espresso. We’re looking for a properly extracted espresso that has a balanced taste and is not sour (under-extracted), bitter (over-extracted) or both under- and over-extracted at the same time (the result of channeling).
2) The quality of the milk steaming. We’re in search of milk that has been steamed to the perfect temperature and that has the right texture. With regard to texture, the latte should have microfoam, which has the appearance of gloss white paint, silky smooth, with no bubbles visible to the naked eye.
3) Freshness: The latte should taste fresh because the beans are fresh, and freshly ground.
4) Latte art: As I’ve ranked more lattes, I decided to give this factor more weight than before, though it’s not nearly as important as 1-3.
Based how well they satisfy these criteria, the lattes receive a score somewhere between 1-5, with 1 being the worst, 5 being the best:
1. Undrinkable: One or two sips and you have to grimly toss your latte into the garbage, with great disappointment, despair, existential dread and contempt — a latte so bad that you are offended at having been served something so awful.
2. Drinkable: Ok, but only if you have no other options – say, if you are stuck at a conference in an obscure city and there are no nearby alternatives.
3. Decent: Well, decent, but nothing that particularly stands out and nothing that you would actually seek out.
4. Good: You would make repeat visits to a café that served you a latte receiving this score. Personally, I usually would not bother with anything below a 4, but your taste may be different than mine, so you may find places not far below a 4 that are still worth visiting.
5. Great: When it all goes incredibly well, including the espresso extraction, the milk steaming, and everything else.
Once the latte receives a ranking of about 4.2 or 4.3 or above, what you've got on your hands is what I call DESTINATION COFFEE: Coffee that is so good that you will travel outside of your neighborhood for it. In my case, that could mean, for instance, walking a half hour from the Upper West Side of NYC to the Upper East Side, or taking the 1 train to the West Village, or heading out to Brooklyn.
I do not give any latte a 5 since, hopefully, I can always find something a little bit better than what I had before. I used to say that I’m a tough grader, but I don’t think that’s the case. It’s more that it’s really difficult to make a great espresso-based drink, and I now can recognize where and how things went wrong.
In terms of exactly what I’m ranking, here are the ground rules (get it?):
Café: Any and every NYC coffee shop that ISN'T a gargantuan national chain like Starbucks. It’s ok if a shop has more than one location. I also visit places that make coffee but do something else as their primary gig, such as a bakery.
Drink: Latte (12-ounce cup)
Milk: Whole milk
Shots: Two
I prefer bold coffee — when that first sip is like a slap to the face.
An important note: I do re-rank lattes from cafes I have ranked before. This is because I’ve been working on this project for a long while and there are some places I haven’t been to in a long while. You’re only as good as your last latte, hence the re-rankings, particularly for places I haven’t visited recently. I also may re-rank a café sooner when, with hindsight, I feel I may have under- or over-ranked it. All details of the original ranking, including the original score, are included in the listings for any re-ranked cafes. See my FAQ to learn why I think it’s important to re-rank from time to time.
Another note: Many of the coffee shops I visit have more than one location. The location I list in the rankings for each shop is the location that I actually visited. Visit each shop's website to see if additional locations are available – because location matters!
