The Most Popular Coffee Drink In Los Angeles Is A Clear Favorite

Beyond being one of the most popular beverages in the world — ranking third, behind water and tea — coffee's versatility as a drink has led to many debates over which style is the best of the best. While these preferences vary among people within one community or state, the people of Los Angeles lean heavily toward lattes as their absolute favorite, over any other style.

This general preference among coffee drinkers in LA can be seen through the high frequency that lattes are searched for in the area, on Google. The espresso and milk combo outnumbers every other style of coffee, with decaf being the second-most frequently searched among them. However, this trend can also be seen anecdotally; when LA coffee shop owners were asked about their best-selling espresso items, the vast majority of them noted that lattes were in their top two. While these studies exclude popular items like matcha, which has grown more popular and would likely be near the top of the list (even though you can expect to pay more for your matcha), it does reinforce the latte's dominance over LA's coffee culture.

While there's no one reason why lattes are so popular in Los Angeles, one likely explanation involves the sheer variety of unique takes on the classic coffee style that can be found in the city. From Intelligentsia's Angeleno latte — which features espresso, ice, milk, and agave nectar — to the Palm Sugar Whiskey iced latte from Endorffeine, in Chinatown, you'll never run out of new latte variations to try in the City of Angels.

Similarly, the latte-adjacent cappuccino — which features equal parts milk and foam — is also popular at many coffee shops across LA due to similarly interesting takes on the hot beverage. But perhaps the most fascinating riff on the cappuccino belongs to Go Get Em Tiger, the coffee shop chain that invented the Business & Pleasure; a two-part drink that includes one shot of espresso, a sparkling oolong tea to cleanse your palate, and a single shot of espresso with almond and macadamia milk, to make a creamy cappuccino that's sweetened with simple syrup.