Miami New Times asked its readers who makes the city's best coffee, then asked itself, and got two different answers from the same publication.
In the 2026 Best of Miami Readers' Choice poll, readers voted GROU Coffee + Cowork Best Coffeehouse, one of 141 category winners decided by more than 192,000 votes cast across the whole readers' ballot. That's a measure of popularity among whoever showed up to vote, not a judged review.
Miami New Times' own staff ran a separate, slower contest for the same issue. Editor Kat Bein led production of 340 distinct Best of Miami categories, picked by editors and contributors instead of readers, a process that the paper says took roughly four months from early planning to final illustration, landing online and on newsstands around June 17, 2026, under an astrology theme illustrated by Alvaro Diaz-Rubio.
For coffee specifically, that editorial process didn't produce one rival to GROU Coffee + Cowork. The paper's Eat & Drink awards split coffeehouse honors into separate Miami-Dade and Broward categories, and keep standalone awards for Best Matcha and Best New Coffee Shop apart from either one. Readers answered a single citywide question; editors asked several narrower ones.
A third judge skips the contest format entirely. The Infatuation, a national food-and-drink guide last updated in its Miami coffee coverage on September 30, 2026 by writers Ryan Pfeffer, Virginia Otazo and Mariana Trabanino, doesn't name one best Miami coffee shop either. Its guide groups shops by the kind of coffee experience they offer, and assigns a numeric score only to places serving a full meal, saying it wants to revisit the rest before rating them. Here's what each judge actually said.
1. GROU Coffee + Cowork
Miami New Times' Readers' Choice poll gave GROU Coffee + Cowork the win for Best Coffeehouse in the 2026 ballot, a single, citywide title decided purely by reader votes rather than a staff review. It's the same ballot that split more than 192,000 votes across 141 different categories, so a coffeehouse win here says something about which shop readers thought to vote for, not necessarily which shop a judge would rank first.
2. Emissary
The Infatuation's Miami coffee guide rates Emissary, a Coconut Grove coffee shop, 8.8, the highest score given to any coffee shop in that guide, ahead of every other rated spot on the list.
3. Suite Habana Cafe
Right behind it sits Suite Habana Cafe, a Cuban coffee counter inside a South Beach hotel, which the same guide rates 8.6, close enough to Emissary that the two make up the guide's top tier.
4. Casa Rassi
The Infatuation doesn't give Casa Rassi a numeric score. The South Beach hotel lobby cafe lands instead in a group the guide calls "Just Really Good Coffee," alongside Baker & Barista, and the guide singles out its coffee drinks as some of the more inventive in the area.
5. White Rose Coffee
In the same ungraded group sits White Rose Coffee in Flagami, which the guide notes doubles as a working tattoo parlor and a neighborhood coffee shop under one roof.
6. The Cafe At Books & Books
For a narrower question, where to actually sit down and work, The Infatuation points to The Cafe At Books & Books, tucked inside a Coral Gables bookstore, calling it the top choice in the guide for getting work done.
7. No Signal Coffee
And for an odder kind of best, The Infatuation flags No Signal Coffee, a coworking-space coffee bar in Wynwood, for its claim to pour "the slowest coffee in Miami" through manual, single-shot espresso.
So, which is right?
None of them, exactly, and that's the point. The readers' poll measures what Miami New Times' own audience showed up to vote for; the paper's editors judge a narrower set of categories after months of their own deliberation; and a national guide like The Infatuation skips naming one winner altogether, preferring to sort shops by what a visitor is actually looking for. A reader chasing the single best coffeehouse in Miami should know which of those three questions they're actually asking.
Quick answers
Which coffee shop won Miami New Times' Readers' Choice poll?
GROU Coffee + Cowork won Best Coffeehouse in the 2026 Readers' Choice poll, one of 141 categories decided by more than 192,000 reader votes.
Do Miami New Times' own editors agree with their readers?
Not exactly: the editors' Eat & Drink awards split coffeehouse honors into separate Miami-Dade and Broward categories, plus standalone Best Matcha and Best New Coffee Shop awards, instead of naming one citywide winner.
What's the top-rated Miami coffee shop in The Infatuation's guide?
The Infatuation gives Emissary in Coconut Grove its highest score, 8.8, just ahead of Suite Habana Cafe at 8.6; the guide never names one overall best.
