Five Brooklyn Coffee Bean Shops

If you're a coffee connoisseur then you'll want to check out a coffee bean shop. These stores provide a large assortment of whole beans from all across the globe. They also offer unique kitchenware and trinkets.

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

Porto Rico Importing Co.

Veteran coffee shop that is a specialist in international brews, loose teas, and a wide selection.

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

Porto Rico, originally opened in 1907 by Italian immigrant Patsy Albonese. Greenwich Village at the time was witnessing an influx of Italian immigrants, who had opened businesses to satisfy their food needs. Albanese named the shop after the popular Puerto Rican Coffee she imported and sold - a drink that was so well-known in the present, that even the Pope would drink it.

Porto Rico offers 130 different varieties of beans, which includes those from around the world, at three locations, including Bleecker Street, Essex Market and online. Porto Rico roasts their own beans and offers wholesale distribution for 350 restaurants in NYC, Brooklyn and Brooklyn.

Peter Longo, the current owner and president of the company was raised over the bakery of his family on Bleecker Street where his father was the owner of Porto Rico. The business is still run by the business in the same manner as his father and grandfather.

Sey Coffee

Located along Grattan Street in Morgantown, Brooklyn's Bushwick neighborhood, Sey Coffee is both a roaster and coffee shop. Tobin Polk, Lance Schnorenberg and their 33-year-old co-founders started roasting coffee in the loft on the fourth floor, just across the street in 2011. They named it Lofted Coffee. Local clients included Greenpoint's Budin, and Soho cart services Peddler and Peddler.

Sey's emphasis on buying micro-lots--or even whole harvests from single farmers--has been praised by knowledgeable New York City coffee aficionados. Last year they made a 6-bag micro-lot purchase of Danilo Dones Sitio Catucai 785 from Brazil's Espirito Santo region. The beans were harvested at the peak of ripeness, and then floated to eliminate any defects. They were then dried on the farm following a 36-hour dry fermentation. The result is a blend with hints of berry and melon.

Sey's commitment to holistically improving the wellbeing of staff, customers, and growers extends beyond the retail store. It uses composts and biodegradable disposables to keep waste from landfills. This helps reduce greenhouse gases and helps nourish the soil. It also does away with gratuity, which puts the baristas in a position to sustain their livelihoods and inspire them to focus on their profession.

La Cabra

La Cabra is a modern specialty coffee company that was founded in Aarhus, Denmark in 2012. The company began with a small store and a team of dedicated employees. Their honest and innovative approach to providing a unique coffee experience has earned them a following that was not only in their home town but all over the world.

La Carba has a rigorous process for finding their perfect beans, searching through hundreds of different varieties each year to identify the ones that meet their standards. They roast them in a light style then dial the roast to create their desired flavor profile. This gives the coffees a greater clarity and a more vibrant taste.

The East Village store, which opened in October last year was praised for its high-quality pour overs, as well as the baked goods, overseen and managed by Jared Sexton. He previously worked at Bien Cuit, Dominique Ansel and other coffee establishments.

The shop utilizes the La Marzocco modbar and the plates and cups are designed by Wurtz ceramics in Horsens, coffee bean shop the son and father studio. In a recent interview, Atlanta Coffee Shops General Manager Ian Walla revealed that La Cabra serves 250 different coffees every day, and has usually seven or eight varieties available at any given moment.

The Roasting Plant Coffee

The Roasting Plant is the only multi-unit coffee retailer that roasts on-site and brews according to your preferences, with each cup of coffee being roasted and brewed to your specifications in less than an hour. It searches the world for the finest specialty beans that are sourced directly offering customers a the choice and coffee bean shop quality.

The roaster on site uses fluid bed technology which is a bit different to the drum-type machines that are commonly used in many UK coffee houses. The beans are blown around the heated box by high-speed air that keeps the beans in a suspended state and allows them to be roasted at a consistent rate throughout the machine.

I tried the Sumatran coffee and it was delicious with a an enveloping mouthfeel, dark chocolate scent was present, and the coffee began to cool down as you sipped the coffee. The subtle scents of citrus fruit were detected.

The roasted coffee is then whisked to the store's Eversys brewing machines that are super-automatic and can be brewed to your specification in less than a minute. Customers can pick from nine single origin selections and a range of blends.

Parlor Coffee

It was founded in 2012 in the back of a barbershop that had an espresso machine that was single-group, Parlor Coffee has become a growing roastery, whose beans are found at great restaurants, cafes and home brewers throughout the city. Parlor Coffee is committed to sourcing the highest-quality beans, which have all undergone a long journey before they reach its roasters.

According to their own words in their own words, they "have an unrelenting passion for craft and believe that good coffee should be available to anyone." They achieve this by putting their home-like streetscape that is a mix of residential and commercial. Think compost bins, chalkboard welcome handmade up-cycled products, and a simple deco.

They roast and make their own blends and single-origins (there were six while I was there) They also have cuppings on Sundays that are open to the public. Think of it as the tasting room of a brewery. You can smell and taste the beans, from chocolaty to earthy (one was very tomato-like!). They're away from the main roads but are worthwhile to visit.