Five Brooklyn Coffee Bean Shops
If you're a fan of coffee, then you will want to try out a coffee bean shop. light roast coffee beans offer a wide 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 for their coffee beans. Some shops sell them in bulk.
Porto Rico Importing Co.
Veteran coffee retailer specializing international brews as well as a range of loose teas
As you enter this old-fashioned West Village shop, the aroma of freshly coffee beans fills your nostrils. Open sacks of dark-brown beans line the shelves alongside sugar jars, coffee-making equipment as well as tea accessories.
Porto Rico, originally opened in 1907 by Italian immigrant Patsy Albonese. At the time, Greenwich Village was seeing an increase in Italian immigrants who had opened businesses to serve their culinary needs. Albanese named her shop after the well-known Puerto Rican coffee she imported (and sold) - - a drink that was so famous at the time that even the Pope consumed it.
Porto Rico offers 130 different varieties of beans, including beans from all over the world at three locations, including Bleecker Street, Essex Market, and online. The company roasts its own beans and provides wholesale distribution to 350 restaurants in NYC, Brooklyn and Brooklyn.
Peter Longo, current owner and president, was raised in the family bakery located on Bleecker Street, where his father ran Porto Rico. He continues to operate the shop in a similar manner as his father and grandfather.
Sey Coffee
Sey Coffee, a coffee roaster and shop is located along Grattan Street, in Morgantown. The neighborhood, which is part of Brooklyn's Bushwick district, is located on Grattan Street. Co-founders Tobin Polk and Lance Schnorenberg, both 33, started roasting in a fourth-floor loft just around the corner from 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 purchasing micro-lots, or even whole harvests from single farmers has been praised by highly discerning New York City coffee aficionados. In the past 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 peak ripeness, removed by flotation to eliminate defects, then dry fermented for 36 hours prior to being dried on the farm. The result is a blend that is a little berry and melon.
Sey's dedication to holistically improving the wellbeing of growers, staff and customers extends beyond the walls of the shop. It utilizes biodegradable disposables as well as composts to keep waste out of garbage and converting it into substances that reduce harmful greenhouse gases as well as nourish soil. It also eliminates gratuity. This lets baristas concentrate on their work and support their livelihoods.
La Cabra
La Cabra is a modern specialty coffee company founded in Aarhus, Denmark in 2012. The company began with a small store and a dedicated team. Their honesty and ingenuity to providing a unique coffee experience earned their acclaim not just in their home town but also around the world.
La Carba follows a strict procedure to find their perfect beans. They scour hundreds of varieties every year in order to select the beans that best match their ideals. Then, they roast them in a very light style and dial the roast to create their desired flavor profile. This gives the coffees greater clarity and a more vibrant taste.
The East Village store opened last October with a sleek, minimalist design. It has been praised worldwide by coffee lovers for its precise pour-overs and baked goods, which are overseen 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 designed by Wurtz ceramics, a father and son studio located in Horsens. In a recent interview, Atlanta Coffee Shops General Manager Ian Walla revealed that La Cabra serves 250 different coffees a yea and usually has seven or eight varieties available at any given time.
The Roasting Plant Coffee
The Roasting Plant A multi-unit coffee retailer roasts and brews coffee on site. Each cup is brewed and roasted according to your specifications in less than a second. It scour the globe for the highest quality specialty beans that are directly sourced offering customers a choice and quality.
Their on-site roaster is a fluid bed device, that is distinct from the traditional drum machines commonly found in UK coffee shops. The beans are blown around in a heated box by high-velocity 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 with smooth mouthfeel, dark chocolate aromas were present, and the coffee began to cool while you sipped and subtle aromas of citrus fruit were detected.
The coffee is whisked to the store's Eversys super-automatic brewing machines and you can have your coffee brewed to your specifications in under a minute. Customers can choose from nine single origins as well as different blends.
Parlor Coffee
Parlor Coffee was founded in 2012 in a barbershop using a single espresso machine. It has since grown to become a burgeoning roastery, whose coffee beans are available in top cafes as well as restaurants and home brewers in every city. Parlor is dedicated to sourcing high-quality beans from across the globe Each one has endured a laborious journey before it reaches the roasters.
The owners, who self-described as "passionate about their craft and believe that a good cup of coffee should be available 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 when I was there), but they also have cuppings on Sundays that are open to the public. Imagine it as a tasting area--you can smell and taste the beans as they are roasted. They are a mix of earthy and chocolate (one was almost like tomato!). They're a bit away from the tourist trail and is worth a visit.