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Five Brooklyn Coffee Bean Shops

If you're a coffee connoisseur, then you will want to visit the shops selling coffee beans. They offer a wide assortment 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 them in bulk at their retail locations.

Porto Rico Importing Co.

Veteran coffee seller specializing in international brews and a variety of loose teas

The scent of freshly roasting beans fills the air as you walk into this West Village shop. The shelves are stacked with jars and bags of dark brown beans, along with coffee-making equipment, tea accessories, and sugar.

In 1907, the first time it was opened, Porto Rico was founded by Italian immigrants Patsy Albanese. Greenwich Village at the time was experiencing an influx Italian immigrants, who had opened businesses to meet their food needs. Albanese named her shop after the renowned Puerto Rican coffee she imported (and sold) which was that was so well-known at the time that even the Pope took a sip.

Today, Porto Rico sells 130 varieties of beans from all over 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 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 ran Porto Rico. The business is still run by the business in the same fashion as his father did and grandfather.

Sey Coffee

It is located along Grattan Street in Morgantown, Brooklyn's Bushwick neighborhood, Sey Coffee is both a cafe and a roaster. Co-founders Tobin Polk and Lance Schnorenberg, both 33 started roasting in the fourth-floor loft located across the street at their new location in 2011 under the name Lofted Coffee (with local clients including Greenpoint's Budin and Soho cart service Peddler).

Sey's focus on buying micro-lots, or even entire harvests, from single farmers has earned it the praise of New York City coffee enthusiasts. Last year they made a 6-bag micro-lot purchase of Danilo Dones Sitio Catucai 785 from Brazil's Espirito Santo region. The beans were carefully picked at their peak ripeness, floated to eliminate any defects and dried fermented for 36 hours before being dried on the farm. The result is a blend that is a little the melon and berry.

Sey's commitment goes beyond its shop to improve the overall well-being of staff and farmers, as well as its customers. It utilizes biodegradable disposables as well as composts, keeping waste out of garbage and converting it into substances that help reduce harmful greenhouse gases and nourish soil. It also does away with gratuity, a move that puts baristas in a position to help sustain their livelihoods and motivate them to focus on their art.

La Cabra

La Cabra, a modern specialty-coffee company, was founded in Aarhus in Denmark in 2012. The company began with a small shop and a team of dedicated employees. Their honest and creative approach to providing an exceptional coffee experience earned them a following that was not only in their hometown but all over the world.

La Carba has a rigorous process to find their perfect beans, by scouring through hundreds of different varieties every year to find ones that fit their ideals. They roast them light, adjusting the desired flavor profile. This gives the coffees a greater clarity and a more vibrant taste.

top rated coffee beans Coffeee  opened last October with a sleek minimalist style, and has been praised by global coffee aficionados for its exacting pour-overs and baked goods supervised by head baker Jared Sexton, who's previously worked at Bien Cuit and Dominique Ansel.

The shop is equipped with a 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 around 250 different coffees per year, and usually has seven or eight different varieties available at any given moment.

The Plant Coffee Roasting Plant Coffee

The Roasting Plant A multi-unit coffee retailer roasts and brews its coffee on the spot. Each cup is roasted and brewed according to your specifications in less than one second. It scour the globe for the highest quality specialty beans that are directly sourced, giving customers choices and high-quality.

The roaster on site uses fluid bed technology which is a bit different to the drum-type machines that are commonly used in the majority of UK coffee houses. The beans are blown in an enclosed box that is heated and has high-speed, circulating air. This keeps the beans in suspension and allows for a constant roasting speed.

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

The coffee is whisked to the store's Eversys super-automatic brewing machines and it is brewed to your requirements within less than a minute. Customers can pick from nine single origin selections and a range of blends.

Parlor Coffee

Founded in 2012 in the back of a barbershop that had a single-group espresso machine, Parlor Coffee has become a burgeoning roastery whose beans are found at great restaurants, cafes and home brewers across the city. Parlor Coffee is committed to procuring the finest quality beans, which have gone through a long journey before they reach its roasters.

The owners, who are self-described as "passionate about the craft and believe that great coffee should be available to everyone," have created a space that is down-to earth and filled with chalkboards. There are compost bins and up-cycled items, and simple decor.

They roast and make their own blends and single-origins (there were six while I was there) However, they also hold cuppings on Sundays, and are open to the public. Think of it like the tasting room of a brewery. You can smell and taste the ground beans, ranging from chocolaty earthy (one was very tomato-like!). It's a little off the beaten track, but worth the journey.