Five Brooklyn Coffee Bean Shops

If you are a coffee enthusiast, you should visit a coffee shop. These stores offer a wide selection of whole beans from all over the world. These stores also offer unique trinkets, kitchenware, and other things.

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

Porto Rico Importing Co.

Veteran coffee vendor who is a specialist in international brews, loose teas, and a wide selection.

When you walk into this traditional West Village shop, the smell of fresh roasting beans fills your nostrils. The shelves are stacked with jars, sacks and dark brown beans, along with coffee-making equipment, tea accessories and sugar.

Porto Rico, originally opened in 1907 by Italian immigrants Patsy Albonese. Greenwich Village at the time was experiencing an influx Italian immigrants, who had opened businesses to satisfy their culinary needs. Albanese named her shop after the famous Puerto Rican coffee she imported (and sold) - a beverage so famous at the time that even the Pope drank it.

Porto Rico offers 130 different kinds of beans, including those from around the globe in three locations, including Bleecker Street, Essex Market and online. The company also roasts its own beans and offers wholesale distribution to 350 restaurants in NYC and Brooklyn.

Peter Longo, the current owner and president of the business, grew up above the bakery of his family on Bleecker Street where his father was the owner of Porto Rico. The owner continues to run the business in the same manner as his grandfather and father.

Sey Coffee

Sey Coffee, a coffee shop and roaster located on Grattan Street, in Morgantown. This neighborhood, located in Brooklyn's Bushwick district is situated on Grattan Street. Co-founders Tobin Polk and Lance Schnorenberg, both 33 started roasting in the 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 commitment to buying micro-lots, or even entire harvests, from farmers who are one has earned him the respect of New York City coffee enthusiasts. Last year, Sey purchased a six-bag micro lot of Danilo Dones Sitio Catucai from Brazil's Espirito Santa region. The beans were harvested when they were ripe and then steamed to eliminate any imperfections. They were then dried on the farm after a 36-hour dry fermentation. The result is a cup with hints of berry melon and lemongrass.

Sey's commitment to holistically improving the wellbeing of employees, customers and growers extends beyond the retail store. It uses biodegradable disposables and composts to keep waste out of 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 earn a living.

La Cabra

La Cabra is a modern specialty coffee company that was founded in Aarhus, Denmark in 2012. It began with a tiny store and a team of dedicated employees. Their open and creative approach to delivering a truly exceptional coffee experience has earned their acclaim not just in their home town but all over the world.

La Carba has a rigorous process to find their perfect beans, scouring through hundreds of different lots a year to find the ones that are perfect for their tastes. They medium roast coffee beans them light, adjusting the desired flavor profile. This gives the coffees more intense flavor and clarity.

The East Village store opened last October with a sleek and minimalist design. It has been praised by 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 uses a La Marzocco modbar and the cups and plates are made by Wurtz ceramics in Horsens, Coffeee the son and father studio. In a recent interview with Atlanta Coffee Shops General Manager Ian Walla revealed that La Cabra serves 250 different coffees a yea and usually has seven or eight varieties available at any one time.

The Roasting Plant Coffee

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

Their onsite roaster is an automatic fluid bed machine which is different from the classic drum machines used in UK coffee shops. The beans are blown around the heated box by high-speed air which keeps the beans in a suspended state and allows roasting to happen at a consistent rate as they travel through the machine.

I tried the Sumatran coffee beans unroasted and it was rich and velvety with a smooth taste. Dark chocolate was evident from the aroma. As you sip the coffee there were subtle citrus fruit aromas.

The coffee is whisked to the Eversys super-automatic brewing machines and the coffee is brewed according to your preferences within less than a minute. Customers can pick from nine single origin selections and a range of blends.

Parlor Coffee

The company was founded in 2012 at the back of a barbershop that had a single-group espresso machine, Parlor Coffee has become an energizing roastery whose coffees are available at top cafes, restaurants and home brewers in the city. Parlor is committed to sourcing top-quality beans from around the globe Each one has been through a long and difficult journey before it reaches the roasters.

In their own words the owners "have an unrelenting passion for craft and a belief that great coffee should be available to anyone." They achieve this by putting their home-like area on a residential street. Think compost bins, a chalkboard welcome, handmade up-cycled products and a minimally-decorated space.

They roast their own blends (there were six at the time I was there) and single-origins. However, they also have cuppings on Sundays that are open to the public. Think of it like a tasting room for breweries. You can smell and taste the beans, from chocolatey to earthy (one was almost tomato-like!). They're a bit away from the main roads and it's worth the trip.