5 Myths About Coffee Bean Shop That You Should Avoid

Five Brooklyn Coffee Bean Shops

If you're a coffee lover You'll want to check out a coffee bean shop. They offer a wide variety of beans that are whole from all over the world. They also sell unique kitchenware and trinkets.

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

Porto Rico Importing Co.

Veteran coffee retailer specializing international brews and a selection of loose teas

The scent of freshly roasting beans fills the air when you walk into this West Village shop. Open sacks of dark-brown beans are displayed on the shelves alongside sugar jars, 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 increasing number of Italian immigrants who set up businesses to meet their culinary needs. Albanese named the shop after the famous Puerto Rican Coffee she imported and sold - a drink that was so renowned that at the time, even the Pope would drink it.

Porto Rico offers 130 different kinds of beans, including beans from all over the world in three locations, including Bleecker Street, Essex Market and online. Porto Rico 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, grew up above his family's bakery located on Bleecker Street where his father operated Porto Rico. The business is still run by the shop in the same way to his father and grandfather.

Sey Coffee

It is located along Grattan Street in Morgantown, Brooklyn's Bushwick neighborhood, Sey Coffee is both a coffee shop and roaster. 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 gifts (with local clients including Greenpoint's Budin and Soho cart service Peddler).

Sey's commitment to buying micro-lots, or even whole harvests, from farmers who are one has earned it the praise of New York City coffee enthusiasts. The last time Sey was in the market, he purchased a six-bag micro lot of Danilo Dones Sitio Catucai, a Brazilian coffee from the Espirito-Santo region. The beans were picked at their peak ripeness, removed by flotation to eliminate defects and dried fermented for 36 hours prior to being dried on the farm. The result is a cup with hints of berry, melon and lemongrass.

Sey's commitment extends beyond its shop to improve the overall wellbeing of staff and growers, as well as its customers. It makes use of biodegradable plastics and composts, preventing waste from landfills and converting it to agents that lower harmful greenhouse gas emissions and feed the soil. It also eliminates gratuity, which puts the baristas in a position to support their livelihoods and encourage them to focus on their craft.

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 team of dedicated employees. Their open and creative approach to delivering a truly exceptional coffee experience has earned their acclaim not just in their home town however, but across the globe.

La Carba follows a strict process to find their perfect beans. They scour through hundreds of beans each year to find the ones that best match their ideals. Then they roast them in a very light style and dial them in to achieve their desired flavor profile. This gives their coffees a brighter taste and clarity.

The East Village store, which was opened in October of last year and has been praised by critics for its high-quality pour overs, as well as the baked goods, overseen by Jared Sexton. He previously worked at Bien Cuit, Dominique Ansel and other coffee establishments.

The shop uses the La Marzocco Modbar and the cups, plates and bowls are designed by Wurtz ceramics, a father and 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 usually has seven or eight coffees available at any given time.

The Roasting Plant Coffee

The Roasting Plant A multi-unit retailer of coffee, roasts and brews its coffee on the spot. Each cup is brewed and roasted according to your specifications in less than an hour. It searches countries far and far to find the finest, directly sourced specialty beans, coffee bean shop offering customers choice and high-quality.

Their onsite roaster is a fluid bed machine, which is different from the traditional drum machines commonly found in UK coffee shops. The beans are blown around a heated box by high-velocity air that keeps the green beans in suspension and allows roasting to happen at a consistent rate as they travel through the machine.

I tried the Sumatran Coffee and it was rich and velvety with a velvety flavor. Dark chocolate was evident from the aroma. As you sip the coffee, you could detect subtle citrus fruit flavours.

The roasted coffee is then whisked to the Eversys super-automatic brewing systems and the coffee is brewed according to your preferences within less than a minute. Customers can select from nine single origins and various blends.

Parlor Coffee

Parlor Coffee was founded in 2012 in a barbershop with a single group espresso machine. It has since morphed into a bustling coffee roastery, whose beans can be found in a variety of great cafes restaurants, cafes, and home brewers all over the city. Parlor Coffee is dedicated to sourcing only the highest-quality beans, which have all undergone a long journey before they reach its roasters.

The owners, who are self-described as "passionate about coffee and believe that a good cup of coffee should be accessible to everyone," have created a space that is down-to earth with chalkboards, compost bins and up-cycled 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 hold cuppings on Sundays, which are accessible to the public. Imagine it as a tasting room, where you can taste and smell the ground beans. They vary from earthy to chocolatey (one was almost like tomato!). They're off the beaten track, but worthwhile to visit.