Five Brooklyn Coffee Bean Shops

If you're a lover of coffee and you're looking for a place to shop, then you'll need to try out the coffee shop. They offer a wide selection of whole beans from all over the world. They also offer unique trinkets and kitchenware.

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

Porto Rico Importing Co.

Veteran coffee retailer specializing international brews, as well as a variety of loose teas

When you walk into this quaint West Village shop, the aroma of freshly coffee beans fills your nostrils. The sacks of dark brown beans are stacked on the shelves along with jars of sugar, coffee-making equipment and tea accessories.

Porto Rico, originally opened in 1907 by Italian immigrants Patsy Albonese. At the time, Greenwich Village was seeing an influx of Italian immigrants who established businesses to cater to their culinary requirements. Albanese named her shop after the famous Puerto Rican coffee she imported (and sold) - - a drink that was so famous at the time that even the Pope drank it.

Today, Porto Rico sells 130 varieties of beans from around the globe at three locations in New York City including their Bleecker Street location, Essex Market and online. The company roasts its own beans and provides wholesale distribution to 350 restaurants in NYC and Brooklyn.

Peter Longo, the current owner and president of the company was raised over his family's bakery located on Bleecker Street where his father was the owner of Porto Rico. He continues to run the business in the same manner as his grandfather and father.

Sey Coffee

The shop is located along Grattan Street in Morgantown, Brooklyn's Bushwick neighborhood, Sey Coffee is both a roaster and coffee shop. Co-founders Tobin Polk and Lance Schnorenberg, both 33 started roasting in a 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 emphasis on buying micro-lots--or even whole harvests from single farmers--has earned it the praise of the most discerning New York City coffee beans delivery 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 hand-picked at their peak ripeness, floated to eliminate any defects, then dry fermented for about 36 hours before being dried on the farm. The result is a coffee with hints of berry lemongrass, and melon.

Sey's commitment to holistically improving the health of staff, growers and customers extends beyond the walls of the shop. It utilizes composts and biodegradable plastics to keep waste from landfills. This helps reduce greenhouse gases and nourish the soil. It also does away with gratuity, a move that puts baristas into a position to support their livelihoods and encourage them to focus on their art.

La Cabra

La Cabra is a modern specialty coffee brand that was established in Aarhus, Denmark in 2012. The company started with a modest store and a dedicated team. Their honest and innovative approach to providing an exceptional coffee experience has earned them a loyal following not just in their home town but all over the world.

La Carba has a rigorous process to find their perfect beans, searching through hundreds of different varieties a year to find the ones that meet their standards. They roast them in a light manner before dialing the roast to create their desired flavor profile. This gives the coffees a more intense flavor and clarity.

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

The shop is equipped with the La Marzocco Modbar and the cups, plates and bowls are designed by Wurtz ceramics, a father-and son studio in Horsens. 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 the only multi-unit retailer of coffee that roasts on site and brews on demand, with each cup of coffee beans to buy roasted and brewed to your specifications in less than an hour. It searches the globe for the highest-quality specialty beans that are sourced directly providing customers with the choice and quality coffee beans.

Their onsite roaster uses fluid bed technology that is a bit different to the drum-type machines commonly found in most UK coffee houses. The beans are blown about in a heated container by high-speed air that keeps the green beans suspended and allows them to be roasted at a consistent rate as they move through the machine.

I tried the Sumatran Coffee and it was incredibly rich and velvety with a velvety flavor. Dark chocolate was evident in the aroma and as you sipped the coffee, there were subtle citrus fruit flavors.

The coffee is whisked to the store's Eversys super-automatic brewing equipment and it is brewed to your requirements in under a minute. Customers can choose from nine single origin selections and a wide range of blends.

Parlor Coffee

The company was founded in 2012 at the back of a barbershop, complete with a single-group espresso machine, Parlor Coffee has become a burgeoning roastery whose beans can be found in top restaurants, cafes and home brewers all over the city. Parlor is committed to procuring high-quality coffee beans from across the globe, each of which has been through a long and difficult journey before arriving in the roasters.

The owners, who are self-described as "passionate about the craft and believe that a good cup of coffee should accessible to everyone," have created a space that is down-to earth and has chalkboards, compost bins, up-cycled hand-made items, and simple decor.

They roast their own blends (there were six when I was there) and single-origins, however they also hold cuppings on Sundays, which are open to the public. Imagine it as a brewery tasting room where you can taste and smell the beans as they are roasted. They are a mix of earthy and chocolate (one was similar to tomato!). They're a bit off the beaten track, but it's worth the trip.