Five Brooklyn Coffee Bean Shops

If you're a coffee connoisseur then you'll want to check out a coffee bean shop (related resource site). They offer a wide selection of whole beans from around the world. They also have unique kitchenware and trinkets.

Some of these shops offer subscriptions to their organic coffee beans beans. Some shops offer them in bulk.

Porto Rico Importing Co.

Veteran coffee retailer specializing international brews and a variety of loose teas

As you enter this traditional West Village shop, the scent of freshly roasting beans fills the air. Open sacks of dark-brown beans are displayed on the shelves alongside sugar jars coffee-making equipment, tea and other accessories.

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

Porto Rico offers 130 different varieties of beans, which includes those from around the globe 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 owner and president of the company was raised above the bakery of his family located on Bleecker Street where his father operated Porto Rico. He still runs the shop in the same way as his father and grandfather.

Sey Coffee

Sey Coffee, a coffee roaster and shop is located on Grattan Street, in Morgantown. The neighborhood, which is part of Brooklyn's Bushwick district is situated on Grattan Street. Co-founders Tobin Polk and Lance Schnorenberg, both 33 started roasting in a fourth-floor loft just around the corner from their new store in 2011 under the name Lofted Coffee (with local clients including Greenpoint's Budin and Soho cart service Peddler).

Sey's decision to buy micro-lots, and even whole harvests, from farmers who are one has earned him the respect 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 hand-picked at peak ripeness, floated to eliminate any defects, then dry fermented for a period of 36 hours before being dried on the farm. The result is a cup with hints of berry, lemongrass, and melon.

Sey's mission extends beyond the shop to improve the overall well-being of employees and growers and customers. It utilizes biodegradable disposables as well as composts, keeping waste out of landfills and turning it into substances that help reduce harmful greenhouse gases and enrich the soil. It also reduces gratuity. This lets baristas concentrate on their work and help sustain their livelihoods.

La Cabra

La Cabra, a modern specialty coffee company, was established in Aarhus in Denmark in 2012. It began with a tiny store and a committed staff. Their innovative and honest approach to providing an outstanding coffee experience has earned them a devoted fan base not just in their local area, but worldwide.

La Carba follows a strict process to find their perfect beans. They scour hundreds of varieties every year in order to find those that best fit their ideals. They roast them in a light style before dialing the roast to create their desired flavor profile. This gives the coffees a greater clarity and a more vibrant taste.

The East Village store opened last October with a sleek, minimalist design, and has been praised by international 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 employs 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 speciality coffee beans 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 Roasting Plant Coffee

The Roasting Plant is the only multi-unit coffee retailer that roasts its own coffee and brews to order with each cup of coffee being roasted and brewed according to your preferences in less than an hour. It is a search engine for the finest specialty coffee beans beans that are sourced directly to give customers the option of choice and quality.

Their on-site roaster utilizes fluid bed technology which is quite different from the drum-type machines that are commonly used in most UK coffee houses. The beans are blown inside the heated box using high-speed, circulating air. This keeps the beans suspended and allows for a consistent roasting speed.

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

The coffee that has been roasted will be whisked into the Eversys Super-Automatic Brewing Machines and brewed according your preferences in less than a minute. Customers can pick from nine single origins as well as different blends.

Parlor Coffee

Founded in 2012 in the back of a barbershop, complete with an espresso machine that was single-group, Parlor Coffee has become a growing roastery, whose beans are found at great restaurants, cafes and home brewers throughout the city. Parlor coffee beans shop is committed to finding the highest-quality beans, which have all been through a long journey before reaching its roasters.

According to their own words according to their own words, they "have an unrelenting passion for craft and a belief that great coffee should be accessible to anyone." They accomplish that by creating a simple space on a residential street--think compost bins, chalkboard welcome, handmade up-cycled products and low-frills deco.

They roast and make their own blends and single-origins (there were six when I was there), but they also offer cuppings on Sundays, which are open to the public. Think of it like a tasting room for breweries. You can smell and taste the ground beans, from chocolaty to earthy (one was almost tomato-like!). It's a little away from the main roads, but worth the trip.