This isn't just a Los Angeles thing down in Santa Ana, hit up Hopper & Burr, where you'll find an engaged team tinkering around with all sorts of different roasts in a spartan (but inspired) environment, while up in Sacramento, hidden gem Scorpio Coffee is introducing exciting new coffees to a town that wasn't exactly short on the stuff. Kumquat joined a scene already held in high regard thanks to pioneers like Tohm Ifergan at Dayglow, a very similar operation, this one focused heavily on the lighter, Nordic roasts, with terrific shops in Silver Lake and West Hollywood. Kim and Scott Sohn, the owners of Kumquat Coffeein Los Angeles, a charming, breezy shop that many of its Highland Park neighbors treat like the place for their morning (or midday, or afternoon) latte, except that this also just so happens to be the perfect place to sample some of the best coffees being roasted here at home and around the world, with special attention paid toward Korea, home to one of the most advanced scenes in the world right now. Or is curator a better word? That certainly seems like the best way to define A.J. While some of the country's most celebrated roasters can be found here, some of the most exciting movement in recent years has been in shops that rely not on their own coffee, or one outside source, but many sources, the only limit being the imagination (and ambition) of the proprietor. Supposing the old truth still holds, that what happens to California now is about to happen to the rest of us, then the country is about to find itself inundated with really good multi-roaster cafes. For a couple more, I knew from experience that nothing had come along since my last visit to unseat a past pick. I'm happy to tell you that even with the challenges of the past two years, nearly all of the shops you will read about on this list were visited by me in a few cases, where time was a factor, we felt confident relying on trusted industry experts for their opinions. A shop that didn't fall into either category would have had a lot harder time breaking through-no knock on any number of wonderful places I visited during my travels, but rather a statement of just how high the bar has lately been raised. While an in-house roasting program isn't essential, one of the most positive trends during the last two years is how many shops have gone this route, very often with exciting results equally hopeful were the number of new (or improved) multi-roaster cafes, who source, optimally anyway, from a rotating list of top talent, either in their area, or from all over the world, and sometimes even both.

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