Five Brooklyn Coffee Bean Shops
If you are an avid coffee drinker, then you must visit a coffee shop. These shops offer a broad variety of beans that are whole from all over the world. They also have unique trinkets and kitchenware.
Some of these shops offer subscriptions to their coffee beans. Some shops offer the beans in bulk.
Porto Rico Importing Co.
Veteran coffee retailer specializing international brews and a selection 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 are stacked on the shelves along with sugar jars coffee-making equipment, tea and other accessories.
Porto Rico was first opened in 1907 Porto Rico was founded by Italian immigrants Patsy Albanese. Greenwich Village at the time was witnessing a surge of Italian immigrants, who had opened businesses to satisfy their food needs. Albanese named the shop after the popular Puerto Rican Coffee she imported and sold - a drink that was so well-known in the moment that the Pope would drink it.
Porto Rico offers 130 different varieties of beans, which includes those from around the world located in three locations including Bleecker Street, Essex Market and online. The company also roasts their own beans and offers wholesale distribution to 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 still runs the shop in a similar manner as his father and grandfather.
Sey Coffee
Sey Coffee, a coffee shop and roaster, is located along Grattan Street, in Morgantown. This Brooklyn neighborhood, in the Bushwick district, is located on Grattan Street. 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 preference for buying micro-lots, and even whole harvests from single farmers has earned it the praise of New York City coffee enthusiasts. 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 ripeness and floated to remove any defects. 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 dedication to holistically improving the wellbeing of staff, customers, and growers extends beyond the retail store. It makes use of composts and biodegradable plastics to keep waste from landfills. This helps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and also nourish the soil. It also prevents gratuities. This lets baristas focus on their craft and support their livelihoods.
La Cabra
La Cabra is a modern specialty coffee company that was founded in Aarhus, Denmark in 2012. It began with a tiny store and a committed staff. Their honest and creative approach to providing an exceptional coffee experience has earned their acclaim not just in their home town however, but across the globe.
La Carba has a rigorous process for finding their perfect beans, searching through hundreds of different varieties every year to find ones that meet their standards. Then they roast them in a light style then dial the roast to create their desired flavor profile. This gives their coffees clearer and more vibrant taste.
The East Village store opened last October with a sleek and minimalist design. It's been praised by coffee lovers for its precise pour overs and baked goods that are overseen by head baker Jared Sexton, who's previously worked at Bien Cuit and Dominique Ansel.
The shop uses the La Marzocco modbar, and the cups and plates are designed specifically for Wurtz ceramics in Horsens, an artist-run by a father and son. In a recent interview with Atlanta Coffee Shops, General Manager Ian Walla reveals that La Cabra serves about 250 different coffees per year, and usually has seven or eight varieties on offer at any given point.
The Roasting Plant Coffee
The Roasting Plant is a multi-unit coffee retailer, roasts and brews coffee on site. Each cup is brewed and roasted according to your preferences in less than one second. It searches far and far for the finest quality, directly sourced specialty beans, offering customers choice and high-quality.
Their onsite roaster uses fluid bed technology that is a bit different to traditional drum-type machines found in the majority of UK coffee houses. The beans are blown around in an enclosed box heated by high-speed air, which keeps the beans suspended and allows roasting to happen at a consistent rate when they pass through the machine.
I tried the Sumatran Coffee and it was incredibly rich and velvety with a smooth taste. Dark chocolate was evident from the aroma. And as you sip the coffee, there were subtle citrus fruit flavours.
The coffee is then be transferred to the Eversys Super-Automatic Brewing Machines to be brewed according your specifications within less than a minute. Customers can choose from nine single origins and several blends.
Parlor Coffee
It was founded in 2012 in the back of a barbershop that had one espresso machine in a single group, Parlor Coffee has become a growing roastery, whose beans can be found in top cafes, restaurants and home brewers across the city. Parlor is committed to sourcing high-quality beans from across the globe Each one has endured a laborious journey before reaching the roasters.
In their own words in their own words, they "have an unrelenting love of craft and a conviction that good coffee should be accessible to everyone." They accomplish this by putting their home-like space on a residential street--think compost bins, chalkboards handmade up-cycled products, and a minimally-decorated space.
They roast their own blends (there were six at the time I was there) and single-origins. However, highest rated coffee beans hold cuppings on Sundays that are open to the general public. Think of it as a brewery tasting room--you can smell and taste the beans, ranging from chocolaty earthy (one was very tomato-like!). They're a bit off the beaten path however, they're worthwhile to visit.