Mathew Deshotel

Five Brooklyn Coffee Bean Shops

If you're an avid coffee drinker, you should go to a coffee shop. These shops offer a variety of whole beans from all over the world. These stores also offer unique trinkets, kitchenware, and other things.

Some of these shops offer subscriptions for their coffee beans. Others offer them in bulk buy coffee beans at their retail locations.

Porto Rico Importing Co.

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

When you walk into this quaint West Village shop, the smell of fresh coffee beans fills your nostrils. The shelves are stacked with jars and sacks filled with dark brown beans, with coffee-making equipment, tea accessories, and sugar.

Porto Rico was first opened in 1907 Porto Rico was founded by Italian immigrants Patsy Albanese. At the time, Greenwich Village was seeing an large influx of Italian immigrants who had opened businesses to cater to their culinary needs. Albanese named her shop after the well-known Puerto Rican coffee she imported (and sold) the beverage was so popular that even the Pope consumed it.

Porto Rico offers 130 different varieties of beans, including beans from all over the world in three locations, including Bleecker Street, Essex Market, and online. Porto Rico 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 located on Bleecker Street, where his father ran Porto Rico. He continues to run the business in the same manner as his grandfather and father.

Sey Coffee

Located along Grattan Street in Morgantown, Brooklyn's Bushwick neighborhood, Sey coffee bean coffee is both a roaster and coffee shop. Co-founders Tobin Polk and Lance Schnorenberg, both 33, started roasting in a fourth-floor loft just around the corner 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 purchasing micro-lots, or even whole harvests from single farmers earned it the acclaim of knowledgeable New York City coffee aficionados. Last year they made a six-bag micro-lot purchase of Danilo Dones Sitio Catucai 785 from Brazil's Espirito Santo region. The beans were picked when they were ripe and steamed to remove any imperfections. 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 commitment to holistically improving the wellbeing of staff, growers and customers extends beyond the walls of the shop. It makes use of composts and biodegradable plastics to keep waste from the landfills. This helps reduce greenhouse gases and nourish the soil. It also does away with gratuity, a move that puts baristas into a position to sustain their livelihoods as well as encourage them to focus on their profession.

La Cabra

La Cabra, a modern specialty barista coffee beans company, was founded in Aarhus in Denmark in 2012. The company started with a modest store and a dedicated team. Their honest and innovative approach to delivering a truly exceptional coffee experience has earned them a following not only in their hometown but also around the world.

La Carba has a rigorous process for finding their perfect beans, by scouring through hundreds of different lots every year to find ones that are perfect for their tastes. They roast them light, adjusting the desired flavor profile. This gives the coffees a more vibrant flavor and clarity.

The East Village store opened last October with a sleek, minimalist design. It's been praised by global coffee enthusiasts for its scrumptious pour overs and baked goods supervised by head baker Jared Sexton, who's previously worked at Bien Cuit and Dominique Ansel.

The shop employs the La Marzocco modbar, and the plates and cups are designed specifically for Wurtz ceramics in Horsens, a father and son studio. In a recent interview with Atlanta Coffee Shops, General Manager Ian Walla reveals that La Cabra serves approximately 250 different varieties of coffee each year, and typically has seven or eight coffees available at any given point.

The Roasting Plant Coffee

The Roasting Plant is the only multi-unit retailer of Top 10 coffee Beans which roasts on-site and brews according to your preferences, with each cup of coffee roasted and brewed to your specifications in less than a minute. It scour countries far and across the globe for the highest-quality specialty beans, which are directly sourced providing customers with choice and high-quality.

The on-site roaster employs fluid bed technology, which is quite different from the classic drum-type machines used in the majority of UK coffee shops. The beans are blown inside a heated container with high-speed air that is circulated. This keeps the beans suspended and allows for a constant roasting speed.

I tried the Sumatran coffee and it was rich with smooth mouthfeel, dark chocolate from the fragrance was present. The coffee began to cool down as you sipped and subtle aromas of citrus fruit were evident.

The roasted coffee beans in bulk will be taken to the store's Eversys Super-Automatic brewing Machines to be brewed according your specifications in under a minute. Customers can choose from nine single origins and a variety blends.

Parlor Coffee

Parlor Coffee was founded in 2012 behind a barbershop, with a single espresso machine. It has since developed to become a burgeoning roastery, whose coffee beans can be found in great cafes as well as restaurants and home brewers in every city. Parlor Coffee is committed to sourcing the highest-quality beans, which have all undergone a long journey before they reach its roasters.

The owners, who are self-described as "passionate about coffee and believe that good coffee should be available to everyone," have created a space that is down-to earth with chalkboards, compost bins, up-cycled hand-made products, and low-frills decor.

They roast their own blends (there were six when I was there) and single-origins. But they also have cuppings on Sundays that are open to the general public. Imagine it as a brewery tasting area--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 it's worth the drive.