Five Brooklyn Coffee Bean Shops

If you are an avid coffee drinker, you should go to a coffee shop. These shops provide a variety of whole beans from all over the world. These stores also sell unique trinkets, kitchenware, and other products.

Some of these shops offer subscriptions for their coffee beans. Others offer large quantities of coffee beans at their retail locations.

Porto Rico Importing Co.

Veteran coffee seller specializing in international brews and a selection of loose teas

The aroma of freshly roasted coffeee beans fills the air once you walk into this West Village shop. Open bags of dark-brown beans line the shelves alongside sugar jars coffee-making equipment, tea and other accessories.

Porto Rico, originally opened in 1907 by Italian immigrants Patsy Albonese. At the time, Greenwich Village was seeing an increasing number of Italian immigrants who opened businesses to serve their culinary requirements. Albanese named the shop after the popular Puerto Rican Coffee she imported and sold - a beverage that was so popular in the present, that even the Pope would drink it.

Today, Porto Rico sells 130 varieties of beans from all over the world at three locations in New York City including their Bleecker Street location, Essex Market and online. Porto Rico also roasts their own beans and provides wholesale distribution for 350 restaurants in NYC, Brooklyn and Brooklyn.

Peter Longo, the current president and owner of the company was raised above the bakery of his family on Bleecker Street where his father operated Porto Rico. He still runs the business in the same manner as his father and grandfather.

Sey cafe Coffee Beans

Sey Coffee, a coffee shop and roaster located on Grattan Street, in Morgantown. The neighborhood, which is part of Brooklyn's Bushwick district, is located on Grattan Street. Tobin Polk, Lance Schnorenberg and their co-founders, who are 33 years old, started roasting coffee in a loft on the fourth floor, just around the corner in the year 2011. They named it Lofted Coffee. Local clients included Greenpoint's Budin and Soho cart services Peddler and Peddler.

Sey's commitment to buying micro-lots, or even whole harvests from single farmers has earned him the respect of New York City coffee enthusiasts. In the past they made a six-bag micro-lot purchase of Danilo Dones Sitio Catucai 785 from Brazil's Espirito Santo region. The beans were hand-picked at peak ripeness and floated to get rid of any imperfections and then dried fermented for a period of 36 hours before being dried on the farm. The result is a coffee with hints of berry melon and lemongrass.

Sey's commitment goes beyond its shop to improve the overall health of employees and growers as well as customers. It uses composts and biodegradable plastics to ensure that waste is kept out of the landfills. This helps reduce greenhouse gases and nourish the soil. It also eliminates gratuity. This allows baristas to focus on their craft and help sustain their livelihoods.

La Cabra

La Cabra is a modern specialty coffee company that was founded in Aarhus, Denmark in 2012. It started with a small shop and a committed team. Their innovative and honest method of providing an exceptional coffee experience has earned them a devoted following not just in their home town but also around the world.

La Carba follows a strict procedure to identify their ideal beans. They scour hundreds of varieties every year to find the ones that best meet their ideals. They roast them lightly, dialing in their desired flavor profile. This results in clearer and more vibrant taste.

The East Village store, which was opened in October of last year was praised for its premium pour-overs and baked goods, overseen by Jared Sexton. He previously worked at Bien Cuit, Dominique Ansel, and other coffee houses.

The shop employs a La Marzocco Modbar and the cups plates and bowls are made by Wurtz ceramics, a father and son studio located in Horsens. In a recent interview with Atlanta Coffee Shops, General Manager Ian Walla reveals that La Cabra serves approximately 250 different varieties of coffee each year, and typically has seven or eight varieties on offer at any given point.

The Roasting Plant Coffee

The Roasting Plant, a multi-unit coffee retailer roasts and brews coffee on site. Each cup is brewed and roasted according to your requirements in less than one second. It scour the globe for the highest-grade specialty beans that are directly sourced providing customers with choices and high-quality.

The on-site roaster employs fluid bed technology that is a bit different to traditional drum-type machines found in the majority of UK coffee shops. The beans are blown through a heated box with high-velocity, circulating air. This keeps the beans in suspension and allows for a constant roasting speed.

I tried the Sumatran coffee and it was very rich with velvety mouthfeel. Dark chocolate aroma was present and the coffee started to cool while you sipped delicate citrus flavours fruit were evident.

The coffee that has been roasted is transported to the Eversys super-automatic brewing systems and the coffee is brewed according to your preferences in under a minute. Customers can pick from nine single origin selections and a range of blends.

Parlor Coffee

Parlor Coffee was founded in 2012 in a barbershop with a single espresso machine. It has since evolved into a flourishing coffee roastery, whose coffee beans can be found in great cafes as well as restaurants and home brewers across the city. Parlor Coffee is dedicated to sourcing only the highest-quality beans, that have all been through a long journey before arriving at its roasters.

According to their own words in their own words, they "have an unrelenting love of craft and believe that good coffee should be available to anyone." They do just this by putting their home-like street space, which includes compost bins, a chalkboard welcome hand-made up-cycled goods, and a minimalist deco.

They roast and brew their own blends and single-origins (there were six on the menu when I was there) However, they also have cuppings on Sundays that are open to the public. Imagine it as a brewery tasting area--you can taste and smell the ground beans. They vary from earthy to chocolaty (one was similar to tomato!). They're a bit away from the main roads, but it's worth the trip.