Keira Estevez

Five Brooklyn Coffee Bean Shops

If you're a coffee connoisseur then you'll want to check out a coffee bean shop. They offer a wide variety of decaf beans coffee that are whole from all across the globe. They also sell unique trinkets, kitchenware and other products.

Some of these shops offer subscriptions for their coffee beans in bulk beans. Some shops offer these in bulk.

Porto Rico Importing Co.

Veteran coffee shop that concentrates on international brews, loose teas and a selection.

The aroma of freshly roasted beans fills the air once you enter this West Village shop. Open bags of dark-brown beans are stacked on the shelves along with jars of sugar coffee beans bulk-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 opened businesses to meet their culinary requirements. Albanese named the shop after the popular Puerto Rican Coffee she imported and sold - a drink that was so renowned that at the time, even the Pope would drink it.

Today, Porto Rico sells 130 varieties of beans from all over the world at three locations in New York City including their Bleecker Street location, Essex Market and online. The company also roasts their own beans and provides 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 his family's bakery on Bleecker Street where his father was the owner of Porto Rico. The business is still run by the shop in the same way to his father and grandfather.

Sey Coffee

It is located along 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 began roasting in a fourth-floor loft just around the corner at their new location in 2011 under the name Lofted Coffee (with local clients including Greenpoint's Budin and Soho cart service Peddler).

Sey's preference for micro-lots or even whole harvests from a single farmer has earned it the respect 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 harvested at their peak of ripeness and steamed to remove any imperfections. They were then dried on the farm following a 36-hour dry fermentation. The result is a blend that has hints of melons and berries.

Sey's commitment goes beyond its shop to improve the overall well-being of growers and staff, as well as its customers. It utilizes composts and biodegradable plastics to keep waste out of the garbage dumps. This helps reduce greenhouse gas emissions and also nourish the soil. It also does away with gratuity, a move that puts baristas in a position to sustain their livelihoods and inspire them to focus on their art.

La Cabra

La Cabra, a modern specialty coffee company, was established in Aarhus in Denmark in 2012. They started with a small store and a committed staff. Their honest and innovative approach to providing an outstanding coffee experience has earned them a devoted following not just in their home town but all over the world.

La Carba has a rigorous procedure for locating their ideal beans, by scouring through hundreds of different varieties every year to locate the ones that match their ideals. They roast them lightly, dialing in their desired flavor profile. This gives the coffees more intense flavor and clarity.

The East Village store, which opened in the month of October last year was praised for its top-quality pour-overs and baked goods that are overseen by Jared Sexton. He previously worked at Bien Cuit, Dominique Ansel and other coffee houses.

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

The Roasting Plant Coffee

The Roasting Plant is the only multi-unit retailer of coffee that roasts its own coffee and brews on demand, with each cup of coffee roasting and brewed according to your requirements in less than one minute. It searches countries far and wide for the highest-grade, directly sourced specialty beans that provide customers with a choice and quality.

Their on-site roaster is a fluid bed machine which is different from traditional drum machines found in UK coffee shops. The beans are blown inside a heated box with high-velocity and circulating air. This keeps the beans in suspension and allows for a constant roasting rate.

I tried the Sumatran Coffee and it was smooth and rich with a smooth taste. Dark chocolate was evident from the aroma. As you sip the coffee, there were subtle citrus fruit aromas.

The coffee beans for sale is then be whisked into the store's Eversys Super-Automatic brewing Machines and brewed according your specifications in under a minute. Customers can select from a selection of nine single origin choices and a range of blends.

Parlor Coffee

It was founded in 2012 in the back of a barbershop equipped with one espresso machine in a single group, Parlor Coffee has become a growing roastery, whose beans are available at top restaurants, cafes and home brewers across the city. Parlor is committed to sourcing top-quality beans from across the globe Each one has endured a laborious journey before reaching the roasters.

The owners, who self-described as "passionate about craft and believe that good coffee should accessible to everyone," have created a space that is grounded and filled with chalkboards. There are compost bins, recycled handmade products, and minimal decor.

They roast and create their own blends as well as single-origins (there were six at the time I was there), but they also offer cuppings on Sundays, which are open to the public. Think of it like the tasting room of a brewery. You can smell and taste the beans, from chocolaty to earthy (one was very tomato-like!). They're away from the tourist trail, but it's worth the trip.