Every day at SCA Expo in Portland I faced a conundrum. I knew I would drink far too much coffee on the trade show floor, but I also wanted to visit some of the coffee shops that make Portland, Oregon one of the most exciting coffee destinations in the US.

Although we weren’t able to get to every coffee shop on our list, we did drink some fantastic coffee at these four cafés.

Heart Coffee Roasters 

Here at thecoffeecompass.com we’ve been Heart fanboys for a while. Their meticulous roasting program focuses on the sort of coffee we love to drink: sweet, bright, and clean. We had high expectations when we visited their Woodstock café, but the team at Heart surpassed them.

First of all, the café is gorgeous. Many cafés have attempted the whole Scandinavian minimalist thing. Heart Woodstock is the café they’re trying to be. The interior is clean but not sterile; design-forward while still being warm and welcoming. More importantly, the service was excellent. The baristas were kind, knowledgeable, and clearly good at making coffee. The Colombia pink bourbon we drank was the best coffee we had in Portland, full stop. We’re jealous of everyone who calls this their neighborhood coffee shop.

Keeper Coffee Co. 

For those outside of Portland, Keeper Coffee Co. might be most recognizable as the backdrop to Morgan Ekroth’s popular TikTok channel. But for Portlanders the café is best known for its housemade pastries and coffee from local roaster Coava.  Our cappuccino tasted excellent and paired beautifully with a gluten-free chocolate and macadamia nut cookie.

Futura Coffee Roasters

Move over direct trade. Like Peixoto Coffee in Arizona, Future Coffee Roasters is co-owned by coffee farmers, in this case, Sebastian Villamizar and Felipe Sardi of La Palma y El Tucán. With a special focus on coffees from their native Colombia, Futura offers a wide variety of single-estate and “single-origin blends.” We loved the fun, colorful decor which seemed to bring a bit of South American spark to the rainy Pacific Northwest.

Proud Mary 

We had hoped to get brunch at Melbourne-transplant Proud Mary before heading out of town, but it seems most everyone else who attended SCA Expo had the same idea. Although we weren’t able to get a table, we did get an excellent cup of drip to go along with the gluten-free carrot cake, which alone was worth planning a return trip for.