Blog entry by Mathew Deshotel
Five Brooklyn Coffee Bean Shops
If you're an avid coffee drinker, then you should consider visiting a coffee shop. These stores provide a large range of whole beans from all over the world. They also sell unique trinkets, kitchenware, and other things.
Some of these shops offer subscriptions to their coffee beans. Others offer them in bulk at their retail stores.
Porto Rico Importing Co.
Veteran coffee shop that specializes in international brews, as well as a variety of loose teas
The scent of freshly roasted beans fills the air as you enter this West Village shop. Unopened bags of dark brown beans line the shelves, along with sugar jars as well as coffee-making equipment and tea accessories.
Porto Rico was first opened in 1907 Porto Rico was founded by Italian immigrant Patsy Albanese. Greenwich Village at the time was experiencing an influx of Italian immigrants, who established businesses to meet their food requirements. Albanese named her shop after the famous Puerto Rican coffee she imported (and sold) which 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 world at three locations in New York City including their Bleecker Street location, Essex Market and online. Porto Rico also roasts its own beans and provides wholesale distribution to 350 restaurants in NYC and Brooklyn.
Peter Longo, current owner and president, was raised in the family bakery on Bleecker Street, where his father was the owner of Porto Rico. He continues to operate the shop in a similar way as his father and grandfather.
Sey Coffee, a coffee roaster and shop, is located along Grattan Street, in Morgantown. This neighborhood in Brooklyn's Bushwick district is situated on Grattan Street. Tobin Polk, Lance Schnorenberg and their co-founders of 33 years, began roasting coffee in a loft on the fourth floor just across the street 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 has earned it the respect of discerning New York City coffee aficionados. The last time Sey was in the market, he purchased a six-bag micro lot of Danilo Dones Sitio Catucai from Brazil's Espirito-Santo region. The beans were picked at their peak of ripeness and then steamed to eliminate any defects. They were then dried on the farm following a 36-hour dry fermentation. The result is a blend with hints of berry, melon and lemongrass.
Sey's focus on holistically improving the well-being of growers, staff and customers extends beyond the shop. It utilizes biodegradable disposables as well as composts, preventing waste from landfills and converting it to substances that reduce harmful greenhouse gases and enrich the soil. It also does away with gratuity, which puts baristas in a position to help sustain their livelihoods and inspire them to concentrate on their art.
La Cabra
La Cabra is a modern specialty coffee business that was founded in Aarhus, Denmark in 2012. It began with a tiny store and a dedicated team. Their honesty and ingenuity to providing a unique coffee experience has earned their acclaim not just in their home town, but globally.
La Carba follows a strict method to select their best beans. They scour through hundreds of lots each year in order to select the beans that best meet their ideals. They then roast them very light, adjusting the desired flavor profile. This gives their coffees a brighter taste and clarity.
The East Village store opened last October with a sleek minimalist design. It's been praised worldwide by coffee lovers for its precise pour-overs and baked goods overseen 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 plates and bowls are made 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 about 250 different coffees per year, and typically has seven or eight varieties on offer at any given time.
The Plant coffee beans bulk Roasting Plant Coffee
The Roasting Plant is the only multi-unit retailer of coffee that roasts its own coffee and brews on demand, with every cup of coffee being roasted and brewed to your specifications in less than one minute. It searches the world wide for the highest-grade specialty beans, which are directly sourced that offer customers a variety and quality.
Their roaster on site is a fluid bed machine, which is different from traditional drum machines commonly found in UK coffee shops. The beans are blown about in an enclosed box heated by high-speed air that keeps the green beans in suspension and allows them to be roasted at a consistent rate throughout the machine.
I tried the Sumatran Coffee and it was rich and velvety with a smooth taste. Dark chocolate was evident in the coffee bean shop aroma. And as you sip the coffee there were subtle citrus fruit flavours.
The coffee is whisked to the Eversys super-automatic brewing equipment and brewed to your specification within less than a minute. Customers can select from a selection of nine single origin choices and a variety of blends.
Parlor Coffee
Founded in 2012 in the back of a barbershop equipped with one espresso machine in a single group, Parlor Coffee has become an energizing roastery whose coffees are available at top restaurants, cafes and home brewers throughout the city. Parlor is committed to procuring high-quality coffee beans from across the globe each of which has endured a laborious journey before arriving in the hands of its roasters.
The owners, who are self-described as "passionate about the craft and believe that good coffee should be accessible to everyone," have created a place that is a bit more grounded with chalkboards, compost bins, up-cycled hand-made items, and simple decor.
They roast and brew their own blends and single-origins (there were six at the time I was there) They also do cuppings Sundays, which are open to the public. Imagine it as a brewery tasting room where you can smell and taste the ground beans. They are a mix of earthy and chocolate (one was almost like tomato!). They're a bit away from the tourist trail, but it's worth the trip.