Coffee Bean Shop Explained In Less Than 140 Characters

Five Brooklyn Coffee Bean Shops

If you are a coffee lover, you must visit a coffee shop. These shops sell a range of whole beans from all over the globe. These stores also offer unique trinkets, kitchenware, and other items.

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 shop that specializes 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, with tea-making equipment, coffee accessories and sugar.

Porto Rico, originally opened in 1907 by Italian immigrants Patsy Albonese.  top rated coffee beans  at the time was witnessing an influx of Italian immigrants, who opened businesses to satisfy their dietary needs. Albanese named the shop after the famous Puerto Rican Coffee she imported and sold - a beverage that was so popular that at the time, even the Pope would drink it.

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. 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 business was raised on the top floor of the bakery of his family located on Bleecker Street where his father operated Porto Rico. He runs the shop in the same way like 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 began roasting in a fourth-floor loft located across the street 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 reliance on micro-lots -- or even whole harvests from a single farmer has earned it the acclaim of the most discerning New York City coffee aficionados. In the past they made a 6-bag micro-lot purchase of Danilo Dones Sitio Catucai 785 from Brazil's Espirito Santo region. The beans were harvested when they were ripe and floated to remove any imperfections. They were then dried on the farm following a 36-hour dry fermentation. The result is a blend that is a little the melon and berry.

Sey's dedication to holistically improving the quality of life for employees, customers and growers extends beyond the store. It makes use of biodegradable disposables and composts, preventing waste from garbage and converting it into substances that help reduce harmful greenhouse gases and nourish soil. It also removes gratuities. This lets baristas concentrate on their craft and support their livelihoods.

La Cabra

La Cabra is a modern specialty coffee company that was founded in Aarhus, Denmark in 2012. The company started with a modest store and a dedicated staff. Their honesty and ingenuity to delivering an extraordinary coffee experience has earned them a following not only in their home town however, but across the globe.

La Carba follows a strict procedure to find their perfect beans. They search through hundreds of varieties each year in order to select the beans that best fit their ideals. They then roast them very light, adjusting the desired flavor profile. This gives the coffees more vibrant taste and clarity.

The East Village store opened last October with a sleek and minimalist design. It's been praised worldwide by coffee aficionados for its exacting pour overs and baked goods that are overseen by head baker Jared Sexton, who's previously worked at Bien Cuit and Dominique Ansel.

The shop employs a La Marzocco Modbar as well as the cups, plates, and bowls are custom-designed by Wurtz ceramics, a father-and-son studio in Horsens. In a recent interview with Atlanta Coffee Shops General Manager Ian Walla revealed that La Cabra serves 250 different coffees a yea and typically has seven or eight varieties available at any one time.

The Plant Coffee Roasting Plant Coffee

The Roasting Plant is a multi-unit retailer of coffee, roasts and brews coffee on-site. Each cup is roasted and brewed according to your specifications within less than one second. It scour the globe for the finest specialty beans that are directly sourced offering customers a the option of choice and quality.

Their roaster on site is a fluid bed machine which is different from the classic drum machines used in UK coffee shops. The beans are blown through the heated box using high-speed, circulating air. This keeps the beans in suspension and ensures a consistent roasting rate.

I tried the Sumatran coffee and it was rich with a velvety mouthfeel, dark chocolate from the fragrance was present and the coffee started to cool as you sipped and subtle aromas of citrus fruit were evident.

The roasted coffee will be taken to the store's Eversys Super-Automatic Brewing Machines, and brewed to your specifications in less than a minute. Customers can select from nine single origins as well as several blends.

Parlor Coffee

The company was founded in 2012 at the back of a barbershop equipped with a single-group espresso machine, Parlor Coffee has become a rapidly growing roastery whose beans are sold at top cafes, restaurants and home brewers throughout the city. Parlor is committed to procuring high-quality coffee beans from all over the world each of which is a long, arduous journey before reaching the hands of its roasters.

The owners, who self-described as "passionate about their craft and believe that good coffee should be accessible to all," have created a environment that is simple and has chalkboards, compost bins, up-cycled handmade products, and a minimalist interior.

They roast their own blends (there were six at the time I was there) and single-origins. However, they also have cuppings on Sundays that are open to the public. Imagine it as a tasting area where you can taste and smell the beans that are ground. They range from earthy to chocolatey (one was similar to tomato!). It's a little off the beaten path, but worth the journey.