Coffee Bean Shop: 11 Things You're Leaving Out

Five Brooklyn Coffee Bean Shops

If you're a coffee connoisseur then you'll want to go to a coffee bean shop. They offer a wide range of whole beans from all across the globe. They also sell unique trinkets, kitchenware, and other items.

Some of these shops offer subscriptions to their coffee beans. Others offer them in bulk at their retail locations.

Porto Rico Importing Co.

Veteran coffee vendor coffee bean shop specializing in international brews as well as a range of loose teas

The aroma of freshly roasting beans fills the air when you enter this West Village shop. The shelves are filled with jars, sacks and 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 witnessing an influx of Italian immigrants, who opened businesses to meet their culinary needs. 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 consumed it.

Porto Rico offers 130 different varieties of beans, including those from around the world in three locations, including Bleecker Street, Essex Market, coffee bean shop and online. The company also roasts its own beans and offers wholesale distribution to 350 restaurants in NYC and Brooklyn.

Peter Longo, the current owner and president of the company was raised over the bakery of his family located on Bleecker Street where his father operated Porto Rico. The owner continues to run the shop in the same way as his grandfather and father.

Sey Coffee

It is located on Grattan Street in Morgantown, Brooklyn's Bushwick neighborhood, Sey Coffee is both a coffee shop and roaster. Tobin Polk, Lance Schnorenberg and their co-founders, who are 33 years old, started roasting coffee in a loft on the fourth floor, just across the street, in the year 2011. They named it Lofted Coffee. Local clients included Greenpoint's Budin, and Soho cart services Peddler and Peddler.

Sey's reliance on micro-lots -- or even whole harvests from single farmers has earned it the praise of highly discerning New York City coffee aficionados. In the past, Sey bought a six-bag micro lot of Danilo Dones Sitio Catucai from Brazil's Espirito-Santo region. The beans were picked when they were ripe and steamed to remove any defects. They were then dried on the farm following a 36-hour dry fermentation. The result is a coffee with hints of berry, lemongrass and melon.

Sey's dedication extends beyond its shop to improve the overall wellbeing of staff and farmers, as well as customers. It makes use of composts and biodegradable disposables to keep waste from the garbage dumps. This helps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and also nourish the soil. It also removes gratuities. This allows baristas to concentrate on their work and earn a living.

La Cabra

La Cabra, a modern specialty coffee company, was founded in Aarhus in Denmark in 2012. It started with a small shop and a dedicated staff. Their innovative and honest approach to providing an outstanding coffee experience has earned them a devoted following not just in their own town but also around the world.

La Carba follows a strict procedure to find their perfect beans. They scour through hundreds of beans each year to find those that best match their ideals. They roast them in a very light style and dial the roast to create their desired flavor profile. This gives their coffees more clarity and a better taste.

The East Village store opened last October, with a minimalist and sleek design, and has been praised by international coffee enthusiasts for its scrumptious pour overs and baked goods supervised by head baker Jared Sexton, who's previously worked at Bien Cuit and Dominique Ansel.

The shop employs a La Marzocco Modbar, and the cups, plates and bowls are made by Wurtz ceramics, a father/son studio in Horsens. In a recent interview with Atlanta Coffee Shops, General Manager Ian Walla reveals that La Cabra serves approximately 250 different coffees a year, and typically has seven or eight coffees available at any given point.

The Plant Coffee Roasting Plant Coffee

The Roasting Plant A multi-unit coffee retailer roasts and brews its coffee gift set on the spot. Each cup is roasted and brewed according to your specifications within less than one second. It searches far and far to find the finest specialty beans that are directly sourced that provide customers with a choice and quality.

The on-site roaster employs fluid bed technology which is a bit different to traditional drum-type machines found in the majority of UK coffee houses. The beans are blown about in a heated box by high-velocity air that keeps the green beans suspended and allows them to be roasted at a consistent rate when they pass through the machine.

I tried the Sumatran coffee and it was very rich with an enveloping mouthfeel, dark chocolate scent was present, and the coffee began to cool as you sipped the coffee. The subtle scents of citrus fruit were detected.

The roasted coffee will be poured into the store's Eversys Super-Automatic Brewing Machines, and brewed to your preferences within less than a minute. Customers can choose from nine single origins and several blends.

Parlor Coffee

It was founded in 2012 in the back of a barbershop, complete with an espresso machine with a single group, Parlor Coffee has become a growing roastery, whose beans can be found in top cafes, restaurants and home brewers throughout the city. Parlor Coffee is committed to finding the highest quality beans that have gone through a long journey before they reach its roasters.

According to their own words in their own words, they "have an unstoppable passion for craft and believe that good coffee should be accessible to everyone." They do just that with their down-to-earth street space, which includes compost bins, chalkboard welcome handmade up-cycled products, and a minimalist deco.

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