A Rewind The Conversations People Had About Coffee Bean Shop 20 Years Ago

Five Brooklyn Coffee Bean Shops

If you are a coffee lover, you should go to a coffee shop. These stores provide a large selection of whole beans from all over the world. These stores 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 shop that specializes in international brews, as well as a variety of loose teas

The scent of freshly roasted beans fills the air once you walk into this West Village shop. Open bags of dark-brown beans are stacked on the shelves along with jars of sugar coffee-making equipment, tea and other accessories.

The first restaurant opened in 1907, Porto Rico was founded by Italian immigrant Patsy Albanese. Greenwich Village at the time was experiencing an influx Italian immigrants, who established businesses in order to meet their food requirements. Albanese named her shop after the popular Puerto Rican coffee she imported (and sold) the beverage was that was so well-known at the time that even the Pope took a sip.

Porto Rico offers 130 different varieties of beans, which includes those from around the world, at three locations, including Bleecker Street, Essex Market and online. The company roasts its own beans and offers wholesale distribution for 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 was the owner of Porto Rico. He still runs the business in the same way as his father and grandfather.

Sey Coffee

Located along Grattan Street in Morgantown, Brooklyn’s Bushwick neighborhood, Sey Coffee is both an espresso bar and a coffee roaster. Tobin Polk, Lance Schnorenberg and their 33-year-old co-founders started roasting cafe coffee Beans in an apartment on the fourth floor, just around the corner, in the year 2011. They named it Lofted Coffee. Local clients included Greenpoint’s Budin and Soho cart services Peddler and Peddler.

Sey’s decision to buy micro-lots, and even whole harvests, from single farmers has earned it the acclaim of New York City coffee enthusiasts. Last year they made a 6-bag micro-lot purchase of Danilo Dones Sitio Catucai 785 from Brazil’s Espirito Santo region. The beans were picked at their peak ripeness, floated to get rid of any imperfections and dried fermented for 36 hours prior to being dried on the farm. The result is a blend with hints of berry lemongrass and melon.

Sey’s commitment goes beyond its shop to improve the overall wellbeing of growers and staff, and customers. It utilizes composts and biodegradable products to keep waste from the garbage dumps. This helps to reduce greenhouse gases and nourish the soil. It also does away with gratuity, a move that puts baristas in a position to provide their livelihoods and encourage them to concentrate on their profession.

La Cabra

La Cabra is a modern specialty coffee brand that was established in Aarhus, Denmark in 2012. It began with a tiny store and a dedicated team. Their honest and creative approach to delivering an extraordinary coffee experience has earned their acclaim not just in their own town but also around the world.

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

The East Village store opened last October with a sleek, minimalist style, and has been praised by international coffee lovers for its meticulous 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 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, Atlanta Coffee Shops General Manager Ian Walla revealed that La Cabra serves 250 different coffees every day and typically has seven or eight varieties on offer at any given moment.

The Plant Coffee Roasting Plant Coffee

The Roasting Plant is the only multi-unit coffee retailer that roasts on-site and brews to order with every cup of coffee roasted and brewed to your specifications in less than an hour. It searches countries far and far to find the finest specialty beans that are directly sourced providing customers with choice and high-quality.

The roaster on site uses fluid bed technology that is quite different from traditional drum-type machines found in many UK coffee shops. The beans are blown around in a heated box by high-velocity air that keeps the beans suspended and allows roasting to happen at a consistent rate as they move through the machine.

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

The roasted speciality coffee beans is then transported to the store’s Eversys brewing machines that are super-automatic and can be it is brewed to your requirements in just a few minutes. Customers can select from a selection of nine single origin choices and a variety of blends.

Parlor Coffee

Founded in 2012 in the back of a barbershop equipped with a single-group espresso machine, Parlor Coffee has become a burgeoning roastery whose beans are available at top restaurants, cafes and home brewers across the city. Parlor is committed to sourcing the highest-quality beans all over the world Each one has had to endure a lengthy journey before it reaches the hands of its roasters.

The owners, who self-described as “passionate about coffee and believe that great coffee should be accessible to all,” have created a space that is down-to earth with chalkboards, compost bins, up-cycled hand-made products, and minimal decor.

They roast their own blends (there were six at the time I was there) and single-origins, however they also hold cuppings on Sundays, which are open to the general public. Imagine it as a brewery tasting area where you can smell and taste the ground beans. They vary from earthy to chocolaty (one was almost like tomato!). It’s a little off the beaten path but worth the trip.