Five Brooklyn Coffee Bean Shops

If you're a fan of coffee then you'll want to go to a coffee bean shop. These stores offer a wide assortment of whole beans from all across the globe. These stores also sell unique trinkets, kitchenware, and other items.

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

Porto Rico Importing Co.

Veteran coffee shop that specializes in international brews, as well as a variety of loose teas

The aroma of freshly roasting beans fills the air once you enter this West Village shop. The shelves are filled with jars, sacks and dark brown beans, along with tea-making equipment, coffee accessories and sugar.

Porto Rico, originally opened in 1907 by Italian immigrants Patsy Albonese. Greenwich Village at the time was experiencing an influx Italian immigrants, who had opened businesses to cater to their food needs. Albanese named her shop after the popular Puerto Rican coffee she imported (and sold) - - a drink that was so famous at the time that even the Pope took a sip.

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. The company roasts its own beans and provides wholesale distribution to 350 restaurants in NYC and Brooklyn.

Peter Longo, the current president and owner of the company was raised on the top floor of the bakery of his family located on Bleecker Street where his father operated Porto Rico. The business is still run by the business in the same way to 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 roaster. 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 single farmers has earned him the respect of New York City coffee enthusiasts. Last year they made a 6-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 blend with hints of berry, lemongrass and melon.

Sey's goal of holistically improving the health of staff, customers, and growers extends beyond the walls of the shop. It uses composts and biodegradable disposables in order to keep waste from the landfills. This helps to reduce greenhouse gases and nourish the soil. It also eliminates gratuity, which puts baristas in a position to sustain their livelihoods and encourage them to focus on their craft.

La Cabra

La Cabra is a modern specialty coffee brand that was established in Aarhus, Denmark in 2012. It began with a tiny store and a committed staff. Their honest and innovative approach to providing an exceptional coffee experience has earned them a devoted following not only in their hometown, but worldwide.

La Carba follows a strict method to select their best beans. They search through hundreds of varieties each year to select the beans that best fit their ideals. They roast them lightly, dialing in their desired flavor profile. This gives the coffees a more vibrant taste and clarity.

The East Village store, which opened in the month of October last year it has been praised for its premium pour-overs, as well as the baked goods, overseen by Jared Sexton. He previously worked at Bien Cuit, Dominique Ansel and various coffee beans bulk houses.

The shop uses the La Marzocco modbar and the cups and plates are custom-designed at Wurtz ceramics in Horsens, a father and son studio. 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 varieties on offer at any time.

The Roasting Plant Coffee

The Roasting Plant is the only multi-unit coffee retailer that roasts on site and brews to order, with every cup of coffee being roasted and brewed according to your preferences in less than minutes. It is a search engine for the highest quality specialty beans that are sourced directly providing customers with the choice and quality.

Their onsite roaster is a fluid bed device, which is different from the traditional drum machines commonly found in UK coffee shops. The beans are blown around in an enclosed box heated by high-speed air that keeps the beans suspended and allows them to be roasted at a consistent rate as they move through the machine.

I tried the Sumatran coffee and it was rich with velvety mouthfeel. Dark chocolate from the fragrance was present and the coffee started to cool as you sipped delicate citrus flavours fruit were evident.

The coffee is whisked to the Eversys super-automatic brewing equipment and the coffee is brewed according to your preferences within less than a minute. Customers can choose from nine single origin selections and a variety of blends.

Parlor Coffee

Parlor Coffee was founded in 2012 in a barbershop with a single espresso machine. It has since developed into a bustling coffee roastery, with beans that are available in top cafes, restaurants, and home brewers in every city. Parlor coffee bean shop Coffee is committed to sourcing the highest-quality beans, which have all undergone a long journey before they reach its roasters.

In their own words, they "have a relentless passion for craft and believe that good coffee should be available to anyone." They accomplish that by creating a simple space on a residential street--think compost bins, chalkboards handmade up-cycled products, and a minimally-decorated space.

They roast and brew their own blends and single-origins (there were six at the time I was there) They also have cuppings on Sundays that are open to the public. Imagine it as a tasting room where you can smell and taste the ground beans. They range from earthy to chocolatey (one was almost like tomato!). They're a bit away from the tourist trail but are worthwhile to visit.