Five Brooklyn Coffee Bean Shops

If you're a fan of coffee, then you will want to go to a coffee bean shop. These stores offer a wide selection of whole beans from all over the world. They also have unique kitchenware and trinkets.

Some of these shops offer subscriptions for their coffee beans. Others offer them in bulk at their retail locations.

Porto Rico Importing Co.

Veteran coffee shop that specialises in international brews loose teas and a selection.

When you walk into this old-fashioned West Village shop, the scent of freshly coffee beans fills your nostrils. Unopened bags of dark brown beans are stacked on the shelves along with jars of sugar, coffee-making equipment and tea accessories.

In 1907, the first time it was opened, Porto Rico was founded by Italian immigrant Patsy Albanese. At the time, Greenwich Village was seeing an increasing number of Italian immigrants who established businesses to cater to their culinary needs. Albanese named the shop after the famous Puerto Rican Coffee she imported and sold - a beverage that was so well-known at the moment, even the Pope would drink it.

Porto Rico offers 130 different varieties of beans, which includes beans from all over the world, at three locations, including Bleecker Street, Essex Market and online. The company also 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 business was raised on the top floor of his family's bakery located on Bleecker Street where his father was the owner of Porto Rico. The business is still run by the shop in a similar way as his father and grandfather.

Sey Coffee

The shop is located along Grattan Street in Morgantown, Brooklyn's Bushwick neighborhood, Sey Coffee is both a roaster and coffee shop. Co-founders Tobin Polk and Lance Schnorenberg, both 33 began roasting in a fourth-floor loft located across the street at their new location in 2011 under the name Lofted Coffee (with local clients including Greenpoint's Budin and Soho cart service Peddler).

Sey's preference for micro-lots or even whole harvests from single farmers been praised by the most discerning New York City coffee aficionados. Last year, Sey purchased a six-bag micro lot of Danilo Dones Sitio Catucai from Brazil's Espirito Santa region. The beans were picked at their peak ripeness and then floated to eliminate any defects. They were then dried on the farm after a 36-hour dry fermentation. The result is a cup with hints of berry, lemongrass, and melon.

Sey's commitment extends beyond its shop to improve the overall well-being of employees and growers as well as customers. It makes use of biodegradable disposables and composts, preventing waste from the landfill and converting it into agents that reduce harmful greenhouse gas emissions and feed the soil. It also removes gratuities. This lets baristas concentrate on their craft and to earn a living.

La Cabra

La Cabra is a modern specialty coffee company that was founded in Aarhus, Denmark in 2012. They started with a small store and a committed staff. Their innovative and honest approach to providing an exceptional coffee experience has earned them a loyal following, not just in their hometown but all over the world.

La Carba has a rigorous process to find their perfect beans, going through hundreds of different lots every year to locate the ones that are perfect for their tastes. Then they roast them in a very light manner then dial them in to achieve their desired flavor profile. This results in an enhanced taste and clarity.

The East Village store opened last October with a sleek and minimalist design, and has been praised by international coffee enthusiasts for its scrumptious pour-overs and baked goods, which are overseen by head baker Jared Sexton, who's previously worked at Bien Cuit and Dominique Ansel.

The shop employs the La Marzocco Modbar and the cups plates, and bowls are custom-designed by Wurtz ceramics, a father-and son studio in Horsens. In a recent interview, Atlanta Coffee Shops General Manager Ian Walla revealed that La Cabra serves 250 different types of coffee per day and typically has seven or eight varieties available at any one time.

The Roasting Plant Coffee

The Roasting Plant A multi-unit retailer of coffee roasts and brews coffee on-site. Each cup is roasted and brewed according to your specifications in less than an hour. It scour countries far and far for the finest quality specialty beans, which are directly sourced, offering customers choice and high-quality.

Their roaster on site is a fluid bed machine, which is different from the traditional drum machines that are used in UK coffee bean shop shops. The beans are blown around in a heated box by high-velocity air which keeps the green beans suspended and allows them to be roasted at a consistent rate as they move through the machine.

I tried the Sumatran Coffee and it was incredibly rich and velvety with a smooth taste. Dark chocolate was evident in the aroma. And as you sipped the coffee, you could taste subtle citrus fruit flavours.

The coffee that has been roasted is whisked to the store's Eversys super-automatic brewing machines and the coffee is brewed according to your preferences within less than a minute. Customers can choose from nine single origin options and a wide range of blends.

Parlor Coffee

Parlor Coffee was founded in 2012 in a barbershop using a single espresso machine. It has since grown to become a burgeoning roastery, whose beans can be found in a variety of great cafes, restaurants, and home brewers all over the city. Parlor is committed to sourcing the highest-quality beans across the globe each of which has had to endure a lengthy journey before reaching the roasters.

The owners, who self-described as "passionate about the craft and believe that good coffee should be accessible to everyone," have created a space that is grounded and filled with chalkboards. There are compost bins, coffee bean shop up-cycled hand-made products, and minimal decor.

They roast their own blends (there were six at the time I was there) and single-origins, however they also host cuppings on Sundays, which are accessible to the public. Imagine it as a tasting area where you can taste and smell the ground beans. They are a mix of earthy and chocolate (one was almost like tomato!). It's a little off the beaten track, but it's worth the drive.