Five Brooklyn Coffee Bean Shops

If you're a coffee connoisseur and you're looking for a place to shop, then you'll need to go to the coffee shop. These stores offer a wide variety of beans that are whole 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 seller that specializes in international brews, loose teas and a variety.

When you enter this traditional West Village shop, the aroma of freshly coffee bean shop beans fills your nostrils. The shelves are filled with jars and bags of dark brown beans, along with tea-making equipment, coffee accessories and sugar.

Porto Rico, originally opened in 1907 by Italian immigrants Patsy Albonese. At the time, Greenwich Village was seeing an influx of Italian immigrants who established businesses to meet their culinary requirements. Albanese named her shop after the popular Puerto Rican coffee she imported (and sold) which was that was so popular at the Coffee bean shop time that even the Pope took a sip.

Porto Rico offers 130 different varieties of beans, including beans from all over the world in three locations, including Bleecker Street, Essex Market, and online. The company roasts its own decaf beans coffee and provides wholesale distribution to 350 restaurants in NYC, Brooklyn and Brooklyn.

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

Sey Coffee

It is located on Grattan Street in Morgantown, Brooklyn's Bushwick neighborhood, Sey Coffee is both an espresso bar and a coffee beans for sale roaster. Tobin Polk, Lance Schnorenberg and their 33-year-old co-founders began roasting coffee in a loft on the fourth floor just around the corner in the year 2011. They dubbed it Lofted Coffee. Local clients included Greenpoint's Budin, and Soho cart services Peddler and Peddler.

Sey's focus on buying micro-lots, and even whole harvests, from farmers who are one has earned it the acclaim of New York City coffee enthusiasts. 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 harvested at their peak ripeness and then steamed to eliminate any defects. They were then dried on the farm after a 36-hour dry fermentation. The result is a coffee that is fragrant with hints of the melon and berry.

Sey's commitment extends beyond its shop to improve the overall wellbeing of staff and farmers, as well as its customers. It utilizes biodegradable disposables as well as composts, preventing waste from the landfill and converting it into substances that help reduce harmful greenhouse gases and enrich the soil. It also does away with gratuity, a move that puts baristas into a position to provide their livelihoods and motivate them to concentrate on their craft.

La Cabra

La Cabra, a modern specialty coffee company, was founded in Aarhus in Denmark in 2012. It began with a tiny shop and a committed team. Their honest and creative approach to providing a unique coffee experience earned them a following that was not only in their home town but also around the world.

La Carba has a rigorous method of identifying their ideal beans, searching through hundreds of different varieties a year to find the ones that meet their standards. They then roast them very lightly, adjusting their desired flavor profile. This gives the coffees more vibrant taste and clarity.

The East Village store opened last October, with a minimalist and sleek style, and has been praised by coffee aficionados for its exacting 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, 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 per day and typically has seven or eight coffees available at any time.

The Plant Coffee Roasting Plant Coffee

The Roasting Plant is a multi-unit coffee retailer, roasts and brews coffee on-site. Each cup is brewed and roasted according to your specifications in less than a second. It scour countries far and far to find the finest specialty beans that are directly sourced providing customers with choice and good quality coffee beans.

Their onsite roaster uses fluid bed technology, which is quite different from the drum-type machines that are commonly used in many UK coffee shops. The beans are blown around in an enclosed box heated by high-speed air which keeps the green beans in suspension and allows them to be roasted at a consistent rate throughout the machine.

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

The coffee is then be whisked into the store's Eversys Super-Automatic Brewing Machines and brewed according to your preferences within less than a minute. Customers can select from nine single origin options and a wide range of blends.

Parlor Coffee

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

The owners, who self-described as "passionate about the craft and believe that great coffee should accessible to everyone," have created a space that is down-to earth, with chalkboards, compost bins and up-cycled items, and simple decor.

They roast their own blends (there were six when I was there) and single-origins. However, they also have cuppings on Sundays, which are open to the general public. Think of it like a tasting room for breweries. You can smell and taste the beans, from chocolatey to earthy (one was very tomato-like!). It's a bit off the beaten track, but well worth the trip.