Coffee obsessives have their favorite haunts, roasters they'll gladly travel across town for, baristas they insist pull the best shots. Just as Eater tipsters, readers, friends and family find joy and adventure in all that is good and right in the culinary world, so too should you approach the bumpercrop of fine cafes Seattle has on offer.

2011 saw several momentous openings in the Seattle coffee scene, led by Capitol Hill's charming Analog Coffee and Fremont's Milstead & Co., a carefully curated multiroaster cafe with international renown. Meanwhile, classic spaces like the Vivace "sidewalk cafe" on Broadway or Victrola on 15th continue to draw in locals and coffee pilgrims alike. Owing to Seattle's remarkable living cafe history, not every entry on this Heat Map is new, and some have been in business for over a decade or more. That just makes these cafes even hotter, especially the world class seasonal coffee menu at Canlis or the new look for Caffe Ladro, open since the mid-90s but now roasting their own beans for the very first time.

Author Jordan Michelman is co-founder of Sprudge.com, the worldwide leader in specialty coffee news and industry gossip.