Blog entry by Mathew Deshotel
Five Brooklyn Coffee Bean Shops
If you're a fan of coffee and you're looking for a place to shop, then you'll need to check out a coffee bean shop. These shops offer a variety of whole beans from all over the globe. These stores also sell unique trinkets, kitchenware and other things.
Some of these shops offer subscriptions to their coffee beans. Some shops offer the beans in bulk.
Porto Rico Importing Co.
Veteran coffee vendor specializing in international brews, as well as a variety of loose teas
The aroma of freshly roasted beans fills the air when you enter this West Village shop. The sacks of dark brown beans are stacked on the shelves along with jars of sugar coffee-making equipment, tea and other accessories.
Porto Rico, originally opened in 1907 by Italian immigrant Patsy Albonese. Greenwich Village at the time was witnessing a surge of Italian immigrants, who set up businesses to cater to their culinary needs. Albanese named her shop after the famous Puerto Rican coffee she imported (and sold) which was that was so well-known at the time that even the Pope was a fan.
Porto Rico offers 130 different varieties of beans, including those from around the world located in three locations including Bleecker Street, Essex Market and online coffee beans. The company roasts its own beans and offers wholesale distribution for 350 restaurants in NYC, Brooklyn and Brooklyn.
Peter Longo, the current president and owner of the company, grew up above the bakery of his family on Bleecker Street where his father operated Porto Rico. He continues to run the business in the same manner as his grandfather and father.
It is located on Grattan Street in Morgantown, Brooklyn's Bushwick neighborhood, Sey Coffee is both a roaster and coffee shop. Tobin Polk, Lance Schnorenberg and their 33-year-old co-founders started roasting coffee in an apartment on the fourth floor just around the corner in 2011. They named it Lofted Coffee. Local clients included Greenpoint's Budin and Soho cart services Peddler and Peddler.
Sey's commitment to buying micro-lots, or even entire harvests from single farmers has earned it the respect of New York City coffee enthusiasts. Last year, Sey purchased a six-bag micro lot of Danilo Dones Sitio Catucai, a Brazilian coffee from the Espirito-Santo region. The beans were hand-picked at the peak of ripeness, then floated to get rid of any imperfections and dried fermented for about 36 hours before being dried on the farm. The result is a coffee beans uk that is fragrant with hints of fruit and melon.
Sey's goal of holistically improving the health of employees, customers and growers extends beyond the shop. It makes use of biodegradable disposables and composts, preventing waste from the landfill and converting it into substances that reduce harmful greenhouse gases as well as nourish soil. It also reduces gratuity. This allows baristas to concentrate on their work and support their livelihoods.
La Cabra
La Cabra is a modern specialty coffee company founded in Aarhus, Denmark in 2012. The company began with a small shop and a dedicated team. Their innovative and honest approach to providing an outstanding coffee experience has earned them a devoted following not just in their hometown and across the globe.
La Carba follows a strict method to select their best beans. They scour through hundreds of varieties every year in order to find those that best fit their ideals. They roast them light, adjusting the desired flavor profile. This gives the coffees a greater clarity and a more vibrant taste.
The East Village store opened last October with a sleek minimalist style, and has been praised by global coffee lovers for its meticulous 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 cups, plates, and bowls are custom-designed by Wurtz ceramics, a father-and-son studio in Horsens. In a recent Q&A session with Atlanta Coffee Shops, General Manager Ian Walla reveals that La Cabra serves around 250 different types of coffees each year, and usually has seven or eight varieties on offer at any given point.
The Plant Coffee Roasting Plant Coffee
The Roasting Plant A multi-unit retailer of coffee roasts and brews coffee on-site. Each cup is roasted and brewed according to your preferences in less than seconds. It searches the coffee bean shop world for the highest-quality specialty beans that are directly sourced to give customers the option of choice and quality.
Their onsite roaster is a fluid bed machine, that is distinct from the traditional drum machines found in UK coffee shops. The beans are blown inside the heated box using high-speed air, which is circulated. This keeps the beans in suspension and allows for a consistent roasting rate.
I tried the Sumatran Coffee and it was rich and velvety with a rich and velvety taste. Dark chocolate was evident from the aroma. And as you sipped the coffee, there were subtle citrus fruit flavors.
The roasted coffee will then be whisked into the store's Eversys Super-Automatic brewing Machines to be brewed according your specifications in under 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, equipped with a single group espresso machine. It has since evolved to become a burgeoning roastery, with beans that are sold in top cafes, restaurants, and home brewers all over the city. Parlor Coffee is committed to finding the highest-quality beans, that have been through a lengthy journey before they reach its roasters.
In their own words according to their own words, they "have an unrelenting love of craft and a belief that good coffee should be available to anyone." They achieve that by creating a simple area on a residential street. Think compost bins, chalkboards hand-made up-cycled goods, and low-frills deco.
They roast their own blends (there were six when I was there) and single-origins, however they also host cuppings on Sundays, which are open to the public. Imagine it as a tasting area where you can smell and taste the beans that are ground. They vary from earthy to chocolatey (one was similar to tomato!). They're a bit away from the tourist trail, but is worth a visit.