America’s Best Iced Latte
In this post, I’m going to share with you my current list of the top ten iced lattes in North America. The first ever Intergalactic Iced Latte Award is given.
Background
This is what my week looks like so far in coffee: Sunday, I had one iced latte in Somerset, Kentucky, two iced lattes in Louisville, and one iced latte in Indianapolis. Yesterday I had two iced lattes in Madison, Wisconsin. Today I tried three different ones in Milwaukee.
You probably think I’m a caffeine addict, but at this stage I don’t know if I feel any effects of it at all—I do it for taste. My work, schooling, and even musical pursuits have brought me to some of the coolest coffee shops in the United States and Canada. I always order an iced latte at whatever coffee place I go to, and searching for the best one in the universe has increasingly become a way for me to explore new regions of the country. I normally have one or two iced lattes a day (sometimes three) and my wife, Jess, calls me a connoisseur, which inspired me to write this post. Jess has been a barista for a long time, and she always gives me good insight of the coffee-related processes while I supplement my own plant science knowledge from my education.
Methods
When searching for coffee in an area, I tend to go to google first because it is easy, and look for the coffee roasters in the region. I also look for the highest-rated coffee shops and work my way down from there. Oftentimes, I end up hearing by word of mouth from friends and random people what other places I should try out. In any case, I always start out with a plain iced latte with oat milk — so this is my standard. However, since I’m picky, I may end up trying other milks as well if their coffee sucks with oat milk, since some definitely do. If the coffee shop is famous for a certain type of coffee or latte, I often try that as well to get a good feel for the place. I typically don’t like to go to big companies like Starbucks unless I'm at their original location, so I skip over them when I’m searching on google. Finally, I try to prioritize searching out organic coffee, fair trade, and shade-grown if possible, but this top ten list isn’t measuring that as much as taste.
The List
Evans Brothers Coffee in Sandpoint, Idaho, https://www.evansbrotherscoffee.com/
This is my favorite iced latte in the world hands down. I’ve had upwards of 900 iced lattes from here in the past few years. I actually included this coffee in my fiction book and made my character drink it.
Captain’s Coffee Roasting Co in Homer, Alaska, https://captainscoffee.com/
This one came as a surprise. I had just done a coffee tour of Alaska and did not expect to have my second favorite latte on the list to be in this tiny town.
Dark Matter Coffee in Chicago, Illinois, https://www.darkmattercoffee.com/
This is my most recent discovery from a week ago. The consistency was phenomenal—a bit of froth and such.
Oso Negro Café in Nelson, British Columbia, https://osonegrocoffee.com/
Oso Negro is incredible. Also in a small town in Canada and was rather unexpected. However, they do not serve iced drinks in the winter, or at least they didn’t when I came in December of 2022.
Green Salmon Coffee Co in Yachats, Oregon, https://www.thegreensalmon.com/
This was the highlight of my honeymoon. Yes. This iced latte.
Black Coffee Roasting Co in Missoula, Montana, https://www.blackcoffeeroastingco.com/
I bought merch from this shop, and I don’t do that a lot. The iced latte is consistently great.
Harden Coffee in Campbellsville, Kentucky, https://www.hardencoffee.com/
My dad actually recommended this one to me. It is his favorite and I have to say it is up there for me. Dad drinks more coffee than me, but his standards are less consistent commonly having a cortado or cappuccino along with his iced lattes.
Seven Coffee Roasters in Seattle, Washington, https://sevencoffeeroasters.com/
One of the best Hawaiian coffee iced lattes I’ve had was here—better than in Hawaii on my coffee plantation visit.
La Brioche True Food in Madison, Wisconsin, https://www.labriochetruefood.com/
This one is tough. I think I've had every single coffee shops’ iced latte in Madison a few times, and while there are some great options like Ancora and Wonderstate, I think La Brioche is most consistently fantastic, which is ironic considering coffee is probably not their main source of income.
Caffe Ibis Coffee Roasters in Logan, Utah, https://www.caffeibis.com/
This is the only iced latte on the list that is not good with oat milk. I normally get it with almond milk when I’m around but I would get regular old cow milk if I wanted the best taste. It is a unique one in that Utah’s coffee culture is small, but this one competes with the big dogs.
These are the top ten so far of the thousands of iced lattes I’ve had in the U.S. and Canada. I haven’t had as many in Mexico so this is not as reflective of their coffee shops. Even still, I have a nearly uncountable list on my phone that spans mostly every corner of the United States and a lot of Canada. Anyway— the moment you’ve been waiting for:
By the power vested in me, I hereby bestow the first Intergalactic Iced Latte Award to Evans Brothers Coffee!
A bit overkill…I know. Had to do it.
