Seattle, Washington is popularly known to be a headquarters for coffee, of sorts. That is probably because the Starbucks Corporation began in the city. In 1971, the first Starbucks opened in Seattle at Pike Place Market, and since then, the company has been on a meteoric rise that has helped it reach the global significance that it now has.

Seattle in particular is also known to be of a substantially rainy climate, which can only help the many coffee shops that are in the city attain good business numbers. The prospect of ducking out of the rain to enjoy a nice mocha or latte is something that people are easily drawn to.

One of the most popular coffee shops in Seattle is Caffe Umbria, located in Pioneer Square, which offers coffee drinks and gelato, among other confectionaries. Many sites exist on the Internet that have extensive lists of a ‘best of’ Seattle coffee shops, and judging by the number of different shops that show up on these lists, the city has more than its fair share. Its status as many people’s favorite coffee location in the United States seems to be shown in the sheer abundance of the number of shops that you can find in the city.

The allure of dodging the droplets of rain cascading down the streets by curling up in a low-lit, quiet coffee shop while enjoying free Wi-Fi internet is a pretty welcoming thought, and probably appeals to many of Seattle’s tourists, eager to experience some of the smaller, independent coffee shops in Seattle have to offer. In a sense, it is somewhat ironic that Seattle is the birthplace of Starbucks, yet the city has a lot of much smaller, independent coffee houses that offer up unique experiences of ambience as well as mochas.