Five Brooklyn Coffee Bean Shops

If you're a lover of coffee then you'll want to visit a coffee bean shop. These shops offer a broad assortment of whole decaf beans coffee from all across the globe. They also sell unique trinkets, kitchenware and other things.

Some of these shops offer subscriptions to their coffee beans. Some shops offer these in bulk.

Porto Rico Importing Co.

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

When you enter this old-school West Village shop, the smell of fresh roasting beans fills the air. Unopened bags of dark brown beans line the shelves alongside jars of sugar, coffee-making equipment as well as tea accessories.

Porto Rico was first opened in 1907 Porto Rico was founded by Italian immigrant Patsy Albanese. At the time, Greenwich Village was seeing an influx of Italian immigrants who had opened businesses to serve their culinary needs. Albanese named the shop after the famous Puerto Rican coffee beans to buy she imported and sold - a beverage that was so renowned that at the time, even the Pope would drink 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. Porto Rico also roasts its own beans and offers wholesale distribution to 350 restaurants in NYC and Brooklyn.

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

Sey Coffee

Sey Coffee, a coffee roaster and shop located on Grattan Street, in Morgantown. The neighborhood, which is part of Brooklyn's Bushwick district, is located on Grattan Street. Tobin Polk, Lance Schnorenberg and their 33-year-old co-founders started roasting coffee in an apartment on the fourth floor, just around the corner in the year 2011. They dubbed it Lofted Coffee. Local clients included Greenpoint's Budin and Soho cart services Peddler and Peddler.

Sey's focus on buying micro-lots, or even whole harvests from single farmers has earned it the praise of New York City coffee enthusiasts. In 2011, Sey purchased a six-bag micro lot of Danilo Dones Sitio Catucai from Brazil's Espirito Santo region. The beans were picked at peak ripeness, floated to remove defects and then dried fermented for 36 hours prior to being dried on the farm. The result is a cup that is fragrant with hints of berry and melon.

Sey's commitment goes beyond its shop to improve the overall well-being of employees and growers and customers. It utilizes composts and biodegradable products to keep waste from the landfills. This helps reduce greenhouse gases and helps nourish the soil. It also eliminates gratuity, which puts baristas into a position to support their livelihoods as well as encourage them to focus on their art.

La Cabra

La Cabra is a modern specialty coffee company founded in Aarhus, Denmark in 2012. It started with a small shop and a dedicated staff. Their open and creative approach to providing a unique coffee experience earned them a following that was not only in their own town but all over the world.

La Carba follows a strict process to find their perfect beans. They go through hundreds of varieties every year to find beans that match their ideals. 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 style, and has been praised by international coffee lovers for its meticulous 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 interview, Atlanta Coffee Shops General Manager Ian Walla revealed that La Cabra serves 250 different coffees per day and usually has seven or eight varieties on offer at any given moment.

The Roasting Plant Coffee

The Roasting Plant is the only multi-unit retailer of coffee beans online that roasts on site and brews on demand, with each cup of coffee roasted and brewed to your specifications in less than one minute. It searches the globe for the highest quality specialty beans that are sourced directly to give customers the option of choices and high-quality coffee beans.

Their onsite roaster uses fluid bed technology which is quite different from the drum-type machines that are commonly used in the majority of UK organic coffee beans shops. The beans are blown around an enclosed box heated by high-speed air which keeps the beans suspended and allows roasting to happen in a steady manner as they move through the machine.

I tried the Sumatran Coffee and it was rich and velvety with a smooth taste. Dark chocolate was evident from the aroma. And as you sipped the coffee, you could smell subtle citrus fruit flavors.

The roasted coffee will then be poured into the store's Eversys Super-Automatic Brewing Machines and brewed according your specifications in under a minute. Customers can select from nine single origin selections and a variety of blends.

Parlor Coffee

Parlor Coffee was founded in 2012 behind a barbershop, with a single espresso machine. It has since evolved to become a burgeoning roastery, whose coffee beans can be found in a variety of great cafes restaurants, cafes, and home brewers throughout the city. Parlor is dedicated to sourcing top-quality beans from across the globe each of which is a long, arduous journey before arriving in the hands of its roasters.

The owners, who are self-described as "passionate about craft and believe that a good cup of coffee should be available to everyone," have created a place that is a bit more grounded, with chalkboards, compost bins, up-cycled hand-made items, and simple decor.

They roast their own blends (there were six at the time I was there) and single-origins, however they also host cuppings on Sundays that are open to the public. Think of it as the tasting room of a brewery. You can smell and taste the ground beans, ranging from chocolaty earthy (one was very tomato-like!). They're off the beaten path but are is worth a visit.