Sebastian Simsch has a theory about what has fuelled Seattle’s thirst for coffee. "It started less with a passion than with a need to compensate for grey weather," he says. "Coffee is a little sunshine in a cup, and once Seattleites got drinking, they decided they might as well drink really good coffee."

Seattle Coffee Works, which Simsch founded in 2006, sources beans directly from farmers and roasts them onsite at its cafe by Pike Place Market – opposite the first Starbucks. In this serious coffee city you don’t dash in and call out "two lattes, please". First you choose your preferred single-origin coffee, then your brewing method (say, Aeropress or siphon) – and then you sit back as a barista prepares your drink with scientific precision.