Five Brooklyn Coffee Bean Shops

If you are a coffee lover, you must visit a coffee shop. These shops offer a variety of whole beans from all over the globe. They also offer unique kitchenware and trinkets.

Some of these shops offer subscriptions to their coffee beans. Some shops sell coffee beans in large quantities.

Porto Rico Importing Co.

Veteran coffee vendor specializing in international brews as well as a range of loose teas

The scent of freshly roasting beans fills the air as you walk into this West Village shop. The shelves are stacked with jars and sacks of dark brown beans, with coffee beans types-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 of Italian immigrants, who opened businesses to cater to their food requirements. Albanese named her shop after the renowned Puerto Rican coffee she imported (and sold) - a beverage that was so well-known at the time that even the Pope consumed it.

Porto Rico offers 130 different kinds of beans, including beans from all over the world, at three locations, including Bleecker Street, Essex Market, and online. Porto Rico also roasts its own beans and offers wholesale distribution to 350 restaurants in NYC and Brooklyn.

Peter Longo, current owner and president, grew up in the family bakery located 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

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, started roasting in a fourth-floor loft located across the street at their new location in 2011 under the name Lofted bulk buy coffee beans (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 earned it the acclaim of discerning New York City coffee aficionados. 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 picked 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 that has hints of melons and berries.

Sey's commitment goes beyond its shop to improve the overall wellbeing of staff and growers, as well as its customers. It utilizes composts and biodegradable products to ensure that waste is kept out of landfills. This helps reduce greenhouse gases and helps nourish the soil. It also eliminates gratuity, which places baristas in the position to help sustain their livelihoods as well as encourage them to concentrate on their art.

La Cabra

La Cabra is a modern specialty coffee company founded in Aarhus, Denmark in 2012. They began with a small shop and a dedicated staff. Their honesty and ingenuity to delivering a truly exceptional coffee experience earned them a following not only in their own town but also around the world.

La Carba follows a strict procedure to find their perfect beans. They scour hundreds of lots each year in order to find the ones that best match their ideals. Then they roast them in a very light style, dialing 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 October last year was praised for its high-quality pour overs, as well as the baked goods, which are overseen by Jared Sexton. He previously worked at Bien Cuit, Dominique Ansel and other coffee establishments.

The shop employs a La Marzocco Modbar as well as the cups, plates, and bowls are custom-designed by Wurtz ceramics, a father-and son studio located in Horsens. In a recent interview with Atlanta Coffee Shops, General Manager Ian Walla reveals that La Cabra serves around 250 different types of coffees each year, and usually has seven or eight varieties available at any given moment.

The Plant Coffee Roasting Plant Coffee

The Roasting Plant is the only multi-unit coffee retailer which roasts on-site and brews on demand, with each cup of coffee roasting and brewed to your specifications in less than an hour. It searches the world wide for the highest-grade 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 drum-type machines commonly found in most UK coffee shops. The beans are blown through a heated box with high-velocity air, which is circulated. This keeps the beans in suspension and allows for a constant roasting speed.

I tried the Sumatran coffee and it was a rich cup with velvety mouthfeel. Dark chocolate aromas were present and the coffee started to cool as you sip, subtle flavours of citrus fruit were evident.

The coffee is then be taken to the Eversys Super-Automatic Brewing Machines and brewed according your preferences in under a minute. Customers can select from nine single origin selections and a wide range of blends.

Parlor Coffee

It was founded in 2012 in the back of a barbershop, complete with an espresso machine that was single-group, Parlor Coffee has become a rapidly growing roastery whose beans are sold at top restaurants, cafes and home brewers all over the city. Parlor is dedicated to sourcing top-quality beans from across the coffee Bean shop globe each of which has had to endure a lengthy journey before it reaches the roasters.

The owners, who self-described as "passionate about the craft and believe that a good cup of coffee beans for sale should be available to everyone," have created a environment that is simple, with chalkboards, compost bins, up-cycled hand-made products, and low-frills decor.

They roast their own blends (there were six at the time I was there) and single-origins. However, they also hold cuppings on Sundays that are open to the general public. Think of it as a brewery tasting room--you can smell and taste the ground beans, from chocolaty to earthy (one was very tomato-like!). They're away from the main roads, but is worth a visit.