Five Brooklyn Coffee Bean Shops

If you're a fan of coffee then you'll want to go to a coffee bean shop. These stores offer a wide range of whole beans from all across the globe. They also have unique trinkets and kitchenware.

Some of these shops offer subscriptions to their coffee beans. Others sell large quantities of coffee beans at their retail stores.

Porto Rico Importing Co.

Veteran coffee vendor who concentrates on international brews, loose teas and a variety.

When you step into this old-fashioned West Village shop, the scent of freshly roasted beans fills your nose. The shelves are stacked with jars and bags of dark brown beans, with tea-making equipment, coffee 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 influx of Italian immigrants who set up businesses to meet their culinary requirements. Albanese named the shop after the popular Puerto Rican Coffee she imported and sold - a drink that was so famous at the moment, even the Pope would drink it.

Today, Porto Rico sells 130 varieties of beans from around 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 offers wholesale distribution to 350 restaurants in NYC and Brooklyn.

Peter Longo, the current owner and president of the business was raised above his family's bakery located on Bleecker Street where his father was the owner of Porto Rico. He still runs the business in the same way as his grandfather and father.

Sey Coffee

It is located on Grattan Street in Morgantown, Brooklyn's Bushwick neighborhood, Sey luxury coffee beans is both a roaster and coffee shop. Co-founders Tobin Polk and Lance Schnorenberg, both 33 started roasting in the 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 reliance on micro-lots -- or even whole harvests from a single farmer has earned it the respect of discerning 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 then steamed to eliminate any imperfections. They were then dried on the farm following a 36-hour dry fermentation. The result is a coffee with hints of berry, lemongrass and melon.

Sey's commitment to holistically improving the wellbeing of staff, growers and customers extends beyond the retail store. It utilizes composts and biodegradable disposables in order to ensure that waste is kept out of the landfills. This helps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and also nourish the soil. It also does away with gratuity, a move that puts the baristas in a position to support their livelihoods as well as encourage them to focus on their craft.

La Cabra

La Cabra is a modern specialty coffee company that was founded in Aarhus, Denmark in 2012. They began with a small shop and a dedicated team. Their honest and creative approach to delivering a truly exceptional coffee experience has earned them a following, not just in their own town however, but across the globe.

La Carba follows a strict procedure to identify their ideal beans. They scour hundreds of lots each year in order to find the ones that best meet their ideals. They then roast them very lightly, dialing in their desired flavor profile. This gives their coffees more clarity and a better taste.

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

The shop employs the La Marzocco modbar and the cups and plates are designed by Wurtz ceramics in Horsens, a father and son studio. In a recent Q&A interview with Atlanta Coffee Shops, General Manager Ian Walla reveals that La Cabra serves approximately 250 different varieties of coffee each year, and usually has seven or eight varieties on offer at any given time.

The Plant Coffee Roasting Plant Coffee

The Roasting Plant, a multi-unit coffee retailer, roasts and brews coffee on-site. Each cup is roasted and brewed according to your specifications within less than seconds. It scour the globe for the highest quality specialty beans that are sourced directly, giving customers the option of choice and quality.

Their onsite roaster uses fluid bed technology that is a bit different to the drum-type machines that are commonly used in most UK coffee shops. The beans are blown into an enclosed box that is heated and has high-speed air, which is circulated. This keeps the beans in suspension and allows for a constant roasting rate.

I tried the Sumatran coffee and it was rich with velvety mouthfeel. Dark chocolate from the fragrance was present, and the coffee began to cool as you sipped the coffee. The subtle scents of citrus fruit were detected.

The coffee that has been roasted will be taken to the Eversys Super-Automatic Brewing Machines and brewed according to your preferences within less than a minute. Customers can select from a variety of single origins and a range of blends.

Parlor Coffee

Founded in 2012 in the back of a barbershop that had an espresso machine with a single group, Parlor Coffee has become a rapidly growing roastery whose beans can be found in top 10 coffee beans restaurants, cafes and home brewers throughout the city. Parlor gourmet coffee beans 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 a good cup of coffee should accessible to everyone," have created a space that is down-to earth with chalkboards, compost bins, recycled handmade products, and low-frills decor.

They roast and make their own blends and single-origins (there were six at the time I was there) Also, they have cuppings on Sundays that are open to the public. Imagine it as a brewery tasting room, where you can smell and taste the beans as they are roasted. They range from earthy to chocolatey (one was similar to tomato!). They're a bit off the beaten track but are it's worth the trip.