Kansas, Not California, Is Now America’s Most Coffee-Obsessed State

Coffee in Kansas got a new address on September 30, when Mokas Coffee & Eatery opened its first franchise in Olathe.

It picked a good state for it.

A recent ranking from Innerbody Research set out to measure which state searches for coffee more than any other, and the results didn’t land the way many people would guess.

Kansas, not California, came out as America’s most coffee-obsessed state.

Behind Innerbody’s Coffee Ranking

Kansas leads Innerbody Research‘s coffee ranking, which pulled together Google search data collected across every state and Washington, D.C.

Researchers tracked how often people searched for coffee shops, big chains, beans, brewing gear, and popular drinks, then rolled it all into one search interest score for each state.

Each state’s score measures its coffee searches against every other state, not against some outside standard.

Innerbody last refreshed those numbers on September 4, 2026, so the order reflects searches happening right now, not an old snapshot.

Kansas topped that score at 95.0, narrowly ahead of California’s 94.8.

That’s two-tenths of a point.

These are the states Innerbody ranks as most obsessed with coffee, starting with the state now ahead of California.

Kansas’s Narrow Edge Over California

Kansas beat California by less than half a point on Innerbody’s 100-point coffee scale.

That’s a coin-flip margin, not a landslide.

Every point mattered.

Winters routinely dip well below freezing.

A hot cup stays practical for a good chunk of the year, in a state where the wind rarely lets up.

California’s coffee roots run deep, too.

Peet’s Coffee opened its first store in Berkeley in 1966.

Starbucks’ three founders trained under its founder before opening their first Starbucks a few years later, according to Peet’s company history.

A state with that kind of coffee history losing by two-tenths of a point says something about how hard Kansans have been searching lately.

Kansas’s Coffee Boom

The state backs up its search numbers with coffee shops opening across the state.

Mokas Coffee & Eatery’s new Olathe store is the first of six planned across the Kansas City area.

Scott Redler, the co-founder of Freddy’s Frozen Custard & Steakburgers, backs the push.

Christian Coleman, whose family started Coleman, the well-known outdoor gear company, signed on as the franchisee for the whole push.

The company started in Salina in 2005.

That’s five more storefronts.

The Olathe location alone is expected to add 45 to 60 jobs, with the rest of the buildout stretching to 2032.

Topeka’s PT’s Coffee Roasting Co. has been roasting in Kansas since 1997.

Coffee Review scored one of its blends, a Yemen Haraaz, at 97 points in 2022 and ranked it the top coffee of that year.

The roaster ships blends to cafes, restaurants, and grocery stores nationwide, and it buys close to 80% of its beans straight from growers instead of through a middleman.

Wichita adds its name to the coffee map at Reverie Coffee Roasters on East Douglas Avenue, a shop that has picked up hundreds of reviews from regulars.

Between the new Olathe store, five more on the way, and a Topeka roaster shipping beans nationwide, the state’s coffee business is growing about as fast as its search numbers.

New York, Massachusetts and Illinois

New York lands third on Innerbody’s list at 77.53, well behind Kansas but still ahead of most of the country.

Massachusetts follows at 69.35, and Illinois rounds out the top five at 67.53.

The gap only widens.

Illinois checks in fifth despite Chicago’s reputation as a major coffeehouse city, which shows a big city alone doesn’t guarantee the top score.

All three trail Kansas by more than 17 points on the same scale.

Mississippi

Kansas sits at the opposite end of Innerbody’s ranking from Mississippi, which anchors the bottom at 5.49, in 51st place among every state and Washington, D.C.

Kansas’s score runs more than 17 times higher on that same 100-point scale.

It’s barely a blip.

A score near 100 means a state’s coffee searches led the whole country.

A score near zero, like Mississippi’s, means that kind of searching barely registered by comparison.

The Limits of Search Interest

The state’s win on Innerbody’s list measures curiosity, not how many cups people pour or how many shops line Main Street.

Clicks aren’t cups.

A 2024 count of coffee shop listings nationwide found Washington and Oregon far ahead of many states in shops per resident, with independent roasters clustered across the Pacific Northwest.

Neither Washington nor Oregon cracked Innerbody’s top five for search interest.

That gap between the two ways of counting coffee is worth remembering the next time a ranking like this one makes the rounds.