Five Brooklyn Coffee Bean Shops

If you're a coffee lover You'll want to visit a coffee bean shop. These shops offer a variety of whole beans from all over the globe. They also sell exclusive trinkets, kitchenware, and other things.

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

Porto Rico Importing Co.

Veteran coffee seller who concentrates on international brews, loose teas, and a wide selection.

The aroma of freshly roasting beans fills the air when you walk into this West Village shop. The sacks of dark brown beans line the shelves alongside sugar jars coffee-making equipment, tea and other accessories.

The first restaurant opened in 1907, Porto Rico was founded by Italian immigrants Patsy Albanese. At the time, Greenwich Village was seeing an increasing number of Italian immigrants who had opened businesses to cater to their culinary needs. Albanese named her shop after the well-known Puerto Rican coffee she imported (and sold) the beverage was so popular that even the Pope consumed it.

Today, Porto Rico sells 130 varieties of beans from all over the globe at three locations in New York City including their Bleecker Street location, Essex Market and online. Porto Rico also roasts their own beans and offers wholesale distribution to 350 restaurants in NYC, Brooklyn and Brooklyn.

Peter Longo, the current owner and president of the business was raised on the top floor of the bakery of his family located on Bleecker Street where his father was the owner of Porto Rico. He continues to run the business in the same way to his father and grandfather.

Sey Coffee

Located along Grattan Street in Morgantown, Brooklyn's Bushwick neighborhood, Sey strong coffee beans is both a coffee shop and roaster. Tobin Polk, Lance Schnorenberg and their co-founders, who are 33 years old, started roasting coffee in an apartment on the fourth floor just around the corner in the year 2011. The name was Lofted Coffee. Local clients included Greenpoint's Budin and Soho cart services Peddler and Peddler.

Sey's reliance on micro-lots -- or even whole harvests from single farmers been praised by discerning New York City luxury coffee beans aficionados. In 2011, Sey purchased a six-bag micro lot of Danilo Dones Sitio Catucai from Brazil's Espirito-Santo region. The beans were picked at their peak ripeness and then floated to eliminate any imperfections. They were then dried on the farm following a 36-hour dry fermentation. The result is a cup that is fragrant with hints of the melon and berry.

Sey's goal of holistically improving the quality of life for staff, growers and customers extends beyond the walls of the shop. It utilizes composts and biodegradable disposables to keep waste out of the landfills. This helps reduce greenhouse gases and helps nourish the soil. It also eliminates gratuity. This allows baristas to concentrate on their craft and to earn a living.

La Cabra

La Cabra, a modern specialty-coffee company, was founded in Aarhus in Denmark in 2012. The company began with a small shop and a team of dedicated employees. Their innovative and honest method of providing an exceptional coffee experience has earned them a devoted following not only in their local area but all over the world.

La Carba follows a strict procedure to identify their ideal beans. They scour hundreds of beans each year to select the beans that best meet their ideals. Then they roast them in a light manner and dial the roast to create their desired flavor profile. This gives the coffees a more vibrant flavor and clarity.

The East Village store opened last October with a sleek minimalist design. It has been praised worldwide by coffee lovers for its precise pour overs and baked goods supervised by head baker Jared Sexton, who's previously worked at Bien Cuit and Dominique Ansel.

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

The Roasting Plant Coffee

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

Their roaster on site is an automatic fluid bed machine which is different from traditional drum machines found in UK coffee shops. The beans are blown through a heated container with high-speed air, which is circulated. This keeps the beans suspended and ensures a consistent roasting rate.

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

The roasted highest rated coffee beans will be transferred to the store's Eversys Super-Automatic Brewing Machines and brewed according your specifications within less than a minute. Customers can select from nine single origins as well as various blends.

Parlor Coffee

Parlor Coffee was founded in 2012 in a barbershop with a single group espresso machine. It has since morphed into a bustling coffee roastery, and its beans can be found in a variety of great cafes, restaurants, and home brewers in every city. Parlor is dedicated to sourcing top rated coffee beans-good quality coffee beans beans from across the globe, each of which has endured a laborious journey before arriving in the hands of its roasters.

The owners, who self-described as "passionate about the craft and believe that great coffee should be available to everyone," have created a place that is a bit more grounded and has chalkboards, compost bins, up-cycled hand-made products, and a minimalist interior.

They roast and brew their own blends and single-origins (there were six when I was there) They also do cuppings Sundays, which are open to the public. Think of it like a tasting room for breweries. You can smell and taste the beans, ranging from chocolaty earthy (one was almost tomato-like!). They're a bit off the beaten track and it's worth the trip.