Five Brooklyn Coffee Bean Shops

If you're a fan of coffee and you're looking for a place to shop, then you'll need to visit a coffee bean shop. They offer a wide assortment of whole beans from all across the globe. They also have unique kitchenware and trinkets.

Some of these shops offer subscriptions to their coffee beans. Some shops offer them in large quantities.

Porto Rico Importing Co.

Veteran coffee vendor specializing in international brews as well as a range of loose teas

The aroma of freshly roasted beans fills the air as you enter this West Village shop. Open bags of dark-brown beans line the shelves, along with jars of sugar as well as coffee-making equipment and tea accessories.

Originally opened in 1907, Porto Rico was founded by Italian immigrant Patsy Albanese. Greenwich Village at the time was experiencing an influx of Italian immigrants, who set up businesses to cater to their culinary needs. Albanese named the shop after the popular Puerto Rican Coffee she imported and sold - a beverage that was so popular in the moment that the Pope would drink it.

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

Peter Longo, the current owner and president of the company was raised on the top floor of his family's bakery located on Bleecker Street where his father was the owner of Porto Rico. He continues to operate the shop in a similar way as his father and grandfather.

Sey Coffee

Sey Coffee, a coffee roaster and shop is located on Grattan Street, in Morgantown. The neighborhood, which is part of Brooklyn's Bushwick district, is located on Grattan Street. Co-founders Tobin Polk and Lance Schnorenberg, both 33 started roasting in a fourth-floor loft just around the corner from their new location in 2011 under the name Lofted Coffee (with local clients including Greenpoint's Budin and Soho cart service Peddler).

Sey's emphasis on buying micro-lots--or even whole harvests from single farmers has earned it the praise of the most discerning New York City coffee aficionados. 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 picked at their peak of ripeness and then floated to eliminate any imperfections. They were then dried on the farm following a 36-hour dry fermentation. The result is a blend with hints of berry, lemongrass, coffee bean shop and melon.

Sey's goal of holistically improving the quality of life for staff, customers, coffee bean shop and growers extends beyond the walls of the shop. It uses composts and biodegradable disposables in order to ensure that waste is kept out of the garbage dumps. This helps reduce greenhouse gases and nourish the soil. It also eliminates gratuity, a move that places baristas in the position to provide their livelihoods and inspire them to concentrate on their profession.

La Cabra

La Cabra, a modern specialty-coffee company, was founded in Aarhus in Denmark in 2012. The company began with a small store and a committed staff. Their honest and creative approach to delivering an extraordinary coffee experience earned them a following that was not only in their own town but also around the world.

La Carba follows a strict procedure to find their perfect beans. They go through hundreds of varieties every year to find the ones that best coffeee meet their ideals. Then, they roast them in a light style and dial them in to achieve their desired flavor profile. This gives the coffees a more intense flavor and clarity.

The East Village store, which opened in the month of October last year, has been praised for its premium pour-overs as well as its baked goods, which are overseen by Jared Sexton. He previously worked at Bien Cuit, Dominique Ansel and various coffee houses.

The shop uses a La Marzocco modbar, and the cups and plates are designed specifically for Wurtz ceramics in Horsens, which is a father-son studio. In a recent interview, Atlanta Coffee Shops General Manager Ian Walla revealed that La Cabra serves 250 different coffees a yea and has typically seven or eight varieties available at any given moment.

The Plant Coffee Roasting Plant Coffee

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

The roaster on site uses fluid bed technology that is quite different from traditional drum-type machines found in many UK coffee drinks shops. The beans are blown around in a heated box by high-velocity air, which keeps the beans suspended and allows roasting to happen in a steady manner throughout the machine.

I tried the Sumatran Coffee and it was rich and velvety with a velvety taste. Dark chocolate was evident in the aroma. As you sipped the coffee you could smell subtle citrus fruit flavors.

The coffee that has been roasted will be taken to the Eversys Super-Automatic Brewing Machines to be brewed according your specifications in less than a minute. Customers can choose from nine single origin options and a variety of blends.

Parlor Coffee

Parlor Coffee was founded in 2012 in a barbershop with a single group espresso machine. It has since evolved to become a burgeoning roastery, with beans that can be found in a variety of great cafes as well as restaurants and home brewers all over the city. Parlor is committed to sourcing high-quality beans from all over the world each of which is a long, arduous journey before it reaches the roasters.

The owners, who self-described as "passionate about the craft and believe that a good cup of coffee should be available to everyone," have created a environment that is simple and has chalkboards, compost bins, recycled handmade products, and minimal decor.

They roast and make their own blends and single-origins (there were six on the menu when I was there), but they also have cuppings on Sundays that are open to the public. Think of it as a tasting room for breweries. You can smell and taste the beans, from chocolaty to earthy (one was almost tomato-like!). They're off the beaten track but are well worth a trip.