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The Best Coffee Shops in Cambridge

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The best coffee shops in Cambridge, according to the experts: Eater, James Beard Awards, and Boston Magazine have all weighed in, and their honors are what rank this list. Cicada Coffee Bar comes out on top.

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Tilde and Broadsheet Coffee Roasters hold the next two places. Eater shows up on more of this list than any other guide, with Boston Magazine next.

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  1. Rank 1. Cicada Coffee Bar

    Vietnamese Coffee Shop

    Masking tape covers the electrical outlets and laptops are not welcome, which tells you everything about the mood at this tiny Cambridge coffee shop. People line up outside the galley-sized space for foamy, salty Vietnamese iced coffee and brioche guava pastries, then settle into the gravel garden out back at rickety little tables. No wifi, no parking, no apologies.


    Address
    106 Prospect St, Cambridge, MA · Cambridge
    Hours

    Closed now, opens 8 AM

    Wednesday 8 AM–3 PM

    Online
    WebsiteInstagram

  2. Address
    2376 Massachusetts Ave, Cambridge, MA · Cambridge
    Hours

    Closed now, opens 8 AM

    Wednesday 8 AM–10 PM

    Online
    WebsiteInstagram

  3. Address
    100 Kirkland St, Cambridge, MA · Cambridge
    Hours

    Open now, until 4 PM

    Wednesday 7:30 AM–4 PM

    Online
    WebsiteInstagram
  4. A former Darwin's location reborn as a worker-owned cooperative coffee shop, where the staff collectively run the place and share in the profits. The menu carries over some old favorites alongside new ones, and the coffee comes from Equal Exchange, another worker-owned co-op, because apparently the solidarity doesn't stop at the door. A neighborhood spot in Cambridge where your latte is, in a small way, a political act.


    Address
    31 Putnam Ave, Cambridge, MA · Cambridge
    Hours

    Closed now, opens 8 AM

    Wednesday 8 AM–3 PM

    Online
    WebsiteInstagram

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Eat Score

The score comes from the awards it's won, weighted by who gave them: a Michelin star outweighs a listicle. When you sort by what's nearby, distance changes the order, never the score.

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    Drink Score

    The score comes from the awards it's won, weighted by who gave them: a Michelin star outweighs a listicle. When you sort by what's nearby, distance changes the order, never the score.

      How we score →

      Stay Score

      Four fifths of the score is the awards it's won, weighted by who gave them: a Michelin Key outweighs a listicle. The last fifth is where it is: the ranked places to eat and things to do around it, and how safe the country is. When you sort by what's nearby, distance from you changes the order, never the score.

        How we score →

        Do Score

        The score comes from the awards it's won, weighted by who gave them: a Michelin star outweighs a listicle. When you sort by what's nearby, distance changes the order, never the score.

          How we score →

          Best Place Score

          The Best Place Score rates the area around a point, not any one place. The places are 60% of it: the best of what's within reach, weighed by distance. The setting is the other 40%: how life goes in that country (how people rate their own lives, how long and how well they live, how safe they are) and what it's like right there (the air, and the weather). If the score looks low, we probably haven't found enough critics out here yet.