Mathew Deshotel

Five Brooklyn Coffee Bean Shops

If you're a gourmet coffee beans lover You'll want to go to a coffee bean shop. These stores offer a wide selection of whole beans from all over the world. 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 stores.

Porto Rico Importing Co.

Veteran coffee vendor specializing in international brews and a selection of loose teas

As you enter this old-school West Village shop, the smell of fresh coffee beans fills your nostrils. The sacks of dark brown beans line the shelves, along with jars of sugar coffee-making equipment, tea and other accessories.

Porto Rico was first opened in 1907 Porto Rico was founded by Italian immigrant Patsy Albanese. At the time, Greenwich Village was seeing an increase in Italian immigrants who established businesses to serve their culinary requirements. Albanese named the shop after the famous Puerto Rican Coffee she imported and sold - a beverage that was so renowned in the present, that even the Pope would drink 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, current owner and president, grew up in the family bakery on Bleecker Street, where his father was the owner of Porto Rico. He still runs the shop in the same manner as his grandfather and father.

Sey Coffee

The shop is located along Grattan Street in Morgantown, Brooklyn's Bushwick neighborhood, Sey Coffee is both a cafe and a roaster. Co-founders Tobin Polk and Lance Schnorenberg, both 33, started roasting in a fourth-floor loft across the street from their new shop in 2011 under the name Lofted Coffee (with local clients including Greenpoint's Budin and Soho cart service Peddler).

Sey's focus on buying micro-lots, or even entire harvests, from single farmers has earned him the respect of New York City coffee enthusiasts. Last year, Sey purchased a six-bag micro lot of Danilo Dones Sitio Catucai from Brazil's Espirito-Santo region. The beans were picked at peak ripeness and removed by flotation to eliminate defects and 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 commitment extends beyond its shop to improve the overall well-being of staff and growers, as well as its customers. It makes use of biodegradable plastics and composts, keeping waste out of landfills and converting it to agents that reduce harmful greenhouse gas emissions and feed the soil. It also does away with gratuity, which places baristas in the position to help sustain their livelihoods and inspire them to focus on their profession.

La Cabra

La Cabra is a modern specialty coffee company founded in Aarhus, Denmark in 2012. It started with a small shop and a team of dedicated employees. Their honest and innovative approach to providing an exceptional coffee experience has earned them a loyal fan base not just in their hometown but all over the world.

La Carba has a rigorous process for finding their perfect beans, going through hundreds of different lots every year to locate the ones that match their ideals. Then they roast them in a very light style before dialing them in to achieve their desired flavor profile. This gives the coffees a greater clarity and a more vibrant taste.

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

The shop utilizes the 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, Atlanta Coffee Shops General Manager Ian Walla revealed that La Cabra serves 250 different types of coffee per day and has typically seven or eight varieties available at any given time.

The Plant Coffee Roasting Plant Coffee

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

The roaster on site uses fluid bed technology that is quite different from traditional drum-type machines found in many UK coffee houses. The beans are blown in a heated box with high-velocity air, which is circulated. This keeps the beans suspended and allows for a consistent roasting speed.

I tried the Sumatran coffee bean suppliers and it was smooth and rich with a velvety flavor. Dark chocolate was evident in the aroma, and as you sipped the strong coffee beans, there were subtle citrus fruit flavors.

The roasted coffee will be transferred to the store's Eversys Super-Automatic Brewing Machines and brewed according to your specifications within less than a minute. Customers can select from a variety of single origins and a range of blends.

Parlor Coffee

Parlor Coffee was founded in 2012 behind a barbershop, with a single espresso machine. It has since grown to become a burgeoning roastery, with beans that are available in top 10 coffee beans cafes as well as restaurants and home brewers across the city. Parlor Coffee is dedicated to sourcing only the highest-quality beans, that have been through a lengthy journey before arriving at its roasters.

The owners, who self-described as "passionate about their craft and believe that great coffee should be accessible to all," have created a space that is grounded and has chalkboards, compost bins, recycled handmade items, and simple decor.

They roast and make their own blends and single-origins (there were six at the time I was there), but they also have cuppings on Sundays that are open to the public. Imagine it as a brewery tasting room where you can taste and smell the beans that are ground. They are a mix of earthy and chocolate (one was almost like tomato!). It's a little off the beaten path but well worth the trip.