Five Brooklyn Coffee Bean Shops
If you're a coffee lover then you'll want to check out a
coffee bean shop. These stores provide a large selection of whole beans from all over the world. These stores also offer unique trinkets, kitchenware, and other items.
Some of these shops offer subscriptions to their coffee beans. Others sell large quantities of coffee beans at their retail locations.
Porto Rico Importing Co.
Veteran
coffee bean company shop that specialises in international brews loose teas, and a variety.
The scent of freshly roasting beans fills the air as you walk into this West Village shop. The shelves are lined with jars and sacks of dark brown beans, along with tea-making equipment, coffee accessories and sugar.
Porto Rico, originally opened in 1907 by Italian immigrants Patsy Albonese. Greenwich Village at the time was experiencing an influx of Italian immigrants, who had opened businesses to satisfy their food needs. Albanese named the shop after the famous Puerto Rican Coffee she imported and sold - a beverage that was so famous in the moment that the Pope would drink it.
Porto Rico offers 130 different varieties of beans, which includes those from around the globe located 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, grew up in the family bakery located on Bleecker Street, where his father was the owner of Porto Rico. The owner continues to run the shop in the same way as his grandfather and father.
Sey Coffee
It is located along Grattan Street in Morgantown, Brooklyn's Bushwick neighborhood, Sey Coffee is both an espresso bar and a coffee roaster. Co-founders Tobin Polk and Lance Schnorenberg, both 33 began 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 commitment to buying micro-lots or whole harvests, from farmers who are one has earned it the acclaim of New York City coffee enthusiasts. In the past, Sey bought a six-bag micro lot of Danilo Dones Sitio Catucai, a Brazilian coffee from the Espirito-Santo region. The beans were picked at the peak of ripeness, then floated to eliminate any defects, then dry fermented for 36 hours before being dried on the farm. The result is a cup with hints of berry, melon and lemongrass.
Sey's commitment goes beyond its shop to improve the overall wellbeing of staff and growers, as well as customers. It uses biodegradable disposables and composts to keep waste out of garbage and converting it into agents that lower harmful greenhouse gases as well as nourish soil. It also eliminates gratuity, which places baristas in the position to help sustain their livelihoods and encourage them to concentrate on their craft.
La Cabra
La Cabra is a modern specialty coffee brand that was established in Aarhus, Denmark in 2012. The company began with a small store and a team of dedicated employees. Their honest and innovative approach to providing a superior coffee experience has earned them a loyal following not just in their home town, but worldwide.
La Carba follows a strict process to find their perfect beans. They search through hundreds of beans each year to find the ones that best meet their standards. They roast them in a light style before dialing them in to achieve their desired flavor profile. This gives their coffees an enhanced taste and clarity.
The East Village store opened last October, with a minimalist and sleek style, and has 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 employs the La Marzocco Modbar and the cups, plates and bowls are crafted by Wurtz ceramics, a father-and-son studio in Horsens. 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 Roasting Plant Coffee
The Roasting Plant is the only multi-unit coffee retailer that roasts its own coffee and brews to order with each cup of coffee roasting and brewed according to your preferences in less than an hour. It is a search engine for the finest specialty beans that are directly sourced to give customers the option of choice and quality.
Their on-site roaster is a fluid bed device, which is different from the traditional drum machines commonly found in UK coffee shops. The beans are blown about in an enclosed box heated by high-speed air which keeps the beans suspended and allows them to be roasted in a steady manner as they travel through the machine.
I tried the Sumatran coffee and it was a rich cup with smooth mouthfeel, dark chocolate from the fragrance was evident and the coffee began to cool down as you sipped delicate citrus flavours fruit were detected.
The roasted coffee is then whisked to the store's Eversys brewing machines that are super-automatic and can be the coffee is brewed according to your preferences in just a few minutes. Customers can pick from nine single origins as well as various blends.
Parlor Coffee
In 2012, the company was established in the back of a barbershop equipped with an espresso machine with a single group, Parlor Coffee has become a rapidly growing roastery whose beans are found at great cafes, restaurants and home brewers in the city. Parlor is committed to procuring high-quality coffee beans from all over the world, each of which is a long, arduous journey before reaching the hands of its roasters.
In their own words according to their own words, they "have an unrelenting love of craft and a belief that great coffee should be accessible to everyone." They achieve that with their down-to-earth street space, which includes compost bins, chalkboards hand-made up-cycled goods, and a minimally-decorated space.
They roast and brew their own blends and single-origins (there were six when I was there) Also, they have cuppings on Sundays that are open to the public. Think of it as a tasting room for breweries. You can smell and taste the ground beans, from chocolaty to earthy (one was almost tomato-like!). They're a bit off the beaten track, but is worth a visit.