Charleston, SCCoffee

Childhood friends Jayme Scott and Ross Jett opened the first Second State location in 2012 and have since grown to four spots around Charleston. The Post and Courier's 10th-anniversary piece traces the roastery's growth from two college roommates into a local brand known for elegant espresso and pourovers. Order a pourover or the seasonal espresso drink.

Charleston Magazine's coffee guide calls this Vanderhorst Street shop a see-and-be-seen set for students and twenty-somethings, coffee by day and craft beer in the courtyard by night. Charleston City Paper's reporting on its eleven straight Best Coffee House wins credits regulars for keeping the shop going. Order a cortado and take it out to the courtyard.

Owners Paul and Melissa Kelly opened this West Ashley roaster in 2006, and it has run as a neighborhood meeting spot ever since. Charleston Magazine's coffee guide points to the Black Raven blend, a house signature paired with a dark Italian roast, among a dozen or more roasts on offer. Order a cup of the Black Raven blend.

Owner Fraser Young moved to Charleston in 2010 and built Big Kick around fire-roasting techniques on a vintage machine roughly a century old, now running out of a downtown Meeting Street shop plus production space on James Island. The Post and Courier points to thoughtful sourcing behind roughly thirty coffee varieties and blends. Order a bag of one of the single-origin roasts.

This cafe pairs Southern bakeshop pies and cakes, including a vanilla buttermilk pie and a key lime pie with a pecan cookie crust, with lattes built on pistachio butter, vanilla date and banana toffee. The Post and Courier covered it in a June 2026 roundup of new Charleston-area coffee shops, the most current source in this set.