Five Brooklyn Coffee Bean Shops

If you're an avid coffee drinker, then you should go to a coffee shop. These stores provide a large variety of beans that are whole from all across the globe. These stores also sell unique trinkets, kitchenware, and other products.

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

Porto Rico Importing Co.

Veteran coffee shop that concentrates on international brews, loose teas, and a variety.

The aroma of freshly roasting beans fills the air when you walk into this West Village shop. Open sacks of dark-brown beans are stacked on the shelves along with sugar jars, coffee-making equipment and tea accessories.

The first restaurant opened in 1907, Porto Rico was founded by Italian immigrant Patsy Albanese. Greenwich Village at the time was witnessing a surge of Italian immigrants, who set up businesses in order to meet their food requirements. Albanese named the shop after the famous Puerto Rican Coffee she imported and sold - a beverage that was so popular in the moment that the Pope would drink it.

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

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

Sey Coffee

It is located along Grattan Street in Morgantown, Brooklyn's Bushwick neighborhood, Sey Coffee is both a coffee shop and roaster. Tobin Polk, Lance Schnorenberg and their 33-year-old co-founders began roasting coffee in an apartment 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 emphasis on buying micro-lots--or even whole harvests from a single farmer has been praised by highly discerning New York City coffee aficionados. Last year 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 the peak of ripeness, then floated to get rid of any imperfections and then dried fermented for 36 hours prior to being dried on the farm. The result is a coffee that has hints of the melon and berry.

Sey's goal of holistically improving the wellbeing of growers, staff and customers extends beyond the store. It utilizes composts and biodegradable products to keep waste from landfills. This helps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and also nourish the soil. It also eliminates gratuity, a move that puts baristas in a position to provide their livelihoods and motivate them to focus on their art.

La Cabra

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

La Carba has a rigorous procedure for locating their ideal beans, scouring through hundreds of different lots every year to locate the ones that fit their ideals. Then they roast them in a light style and dial the roast to create their desired flavor profile. This gives the coffees a more vibrant flavor and clarity.

The East Village store, which opened in the month of October last year and has been praised by critics for its StrongWake: Premium High Caffeine Coffee Beans 500G pour-overs and baked goods that are overseen by Jared Sexton. He previously worked at Bien Cuit, Dominique Ansel and other coffee establishments.

The shop uses a La Marzocco modbar and the cups and plates are custom-designed at Wurtz ceramics in Horsens, an artist-run by a father and son. 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 coffees available at any given moment.

The Plant Coffee 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 preferences in less than a second. It searches countries far and across the globe for the highest-quality specialty beans that are directly sourced that provide customers with a choice and high-quality.

Their on-site roaster utilizes fluid bed technology, which is a bit different to the classic drum-type machines used in the majority of UK coffee shops. The beans are blown into a heated container with high-speed, circulating air. This keeps the beans suspended and ensures a consistent roasting speed.

I tried the Sumatran Coffee and it was velvety and rich with a velvety taste. Dark chocolate was evident in the aroma and as you sip the coffee, you could detect subtle citrus fruit flavors.

The roasted coffee will then be transferred to the Eversys Super-Automatic Brewing Machines and brewed according to your specifications in less than a minute. Customers can pick from nine single origins and a variety blends.

Parlor Coffee

Parlor Coffee was founded in 2012 in a barbershop with a single espresso machine. It has since developed into a flourishing coffee roastery, whose coffee beans are available in top cafes and restaurants as well as home brewers all over the city. Parlor Coffee is committed to finding the highest quality beans that have gone through a long journey before they reach its roasters.

According to their own words the owners "have a relentless passion for craft and a belief that great coffee should be accessible to anyone." They do just this with their earthy streetscape that is a mix of residential and commercial. Think compost bins, chalkboards handmade up-cycled items, and a simple deco.

They roast and make their own blends and single-origins (there were six on the menu when I was there) Also, they have cuppings on Sundays that are open to the public. Imagine it as a brewery tasting room--you can smell and taste the ground beans, ranging from chocolaty earthy (one was almost tomato-like!). They're away from the main roads but are worthwhile to visit.