jittr
To find new coffee you'll order again, you need three things: ratings that measure the drink you order, a few visits before you decide, and input from people whose taste matches yours.
Why star averages mislead
BrightLocal's 2025 consumer survey found that 81% of US consumers used Google to read local business reviews in 2024. Those star averages cover the whole visit, from the Wi-Fi to the parking, and they bunch at the top. In a 2009 analysis in Communications of the ACM, 78% of Amazon book ratings were four stars or higher, because people with middling opinions tend not to post. The authors recommend looking at the spread of ratings, not just the average.
One cup is a small sample
The same order from the same café changes from day to day. In a 2003 University of Florida study, researchers bought a 16-ounce Starbucks Breakfast Blend from one store on six consecutive days and measured 564, 498, 259, 303, 300 and 307 mg of caffeine. If the caffeine can double between visits, the extraction and taste can swing too. Judge a café on three or four visits.
Follow people whose taste matches yours
Recommendation systems built on collaborative filtering, such as the GroupLens project published in 1994, predict what you'll like from the ratings of people who agreed with you in the past. You can do the same by hand: when someone's scores line up with yours on cafés you both know, their high score on a café you haven't tried is worth a visit.
Favor recent ratings
Cafés change roasters, menus and staff. A rating from two years ago describes a café that may not exist in the same form, so weight the last few months more. Jittr's rankings do this for you: recent ratings count for more than old ones.
A field method
- Pick your baseline drink, the one you order everywhere.
- Score it every time, including the forgettable cups.
- Compare cafés on that same drink.
- Give a promising café three or four visits before you call it.
After a month you'll have scores for the cafés near you on the drink you care about, and that list will be more useful than any star average.
Start with your next cup
Jittr scores drinks, not visits. Log your baseline drink and see how the cafés near you compare.
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