Staying in for coffee is a simple luxury in a fast-moving city. Sure, Brooklyn is spoilt for choice among eclectic, world-class coffee shops in which to sip and be seen sipping. But aren’t those rare days you don’t actually have to be anywhere in the morning the best days of all?
It’s for these reasons we recommend some of the best of Brooklyn’s own borough-roasted coffee, available delivered directly to you in easy subscriptions so you won’t have to remember when you’re out of fresh coffee on top of all the other fresh items on your grocery list. You’ll have all the quality and feel-good patronage of still buying carefully selected beans directly from a top-caliber local roaster, with the added decadence of brewing it up while still wearing bunny slippers. Here are a few of our favorites, with the caveat that each one of them handles shipping costs just a little bit differently.
Parlor Coffee
https://www.instagram.com/p/BIIQ1IEDGW8/
Recommended Subscription: Monthly Subcription, two 8 oz. bags every month
$28
A low-key player on the retail landscape (their only “café” to speak of is an espresso bar at the back of Williamsburg barbershop Persons of Interest), Parlor’s become one of Brooklyn’s most notable boutique roasters in recent years. They’ll send you out a couple of seasonal selections at the first of each month, from their roastery and tasting room near the Brooklyn Navy Yard. We love their single origin coffees and approachable style of roasting sweet, balanced coffees with character.
Variety Coffee
https://www.instagram.com/p/BJNgJPDgwLS/
Recommended Subscription: Bi-weekly Subscription, two 300 g boxes every two weeks
$36.34
Longtime Williamsburg fave hangout Variety Coffee opened a coffee roastery in Bushwick two years ago, making an immediate impression on a local roasting scene that’s admittedly saturated. Their quality roasts are available in subscriptions tailored to your coffee preferences—cold brew, espresso or filter—and are available as one- or two-box subscriptions shipped out every two weeks. Since coffee is a fresh product, it’s great to have an option to keep smaller quantities arriving at more frequent intervals.
Nobletree
https://www.instagram.com/p/BHfcUvOAjTu/
Recommended Subscription: Bi-weekly Single Origin Subscription, two 12 oz. bags every two weeks
$36
A newcomer on the scene with a high-end approach and pedigree to boot (the company is partnered with two award-winning farms in Brazil), Nobletree offers a versatile range of subscriptions in varying quantities and frequencies from their roasting facility in Red Hook. Choose from among blends, espresso roasts or single origin subscriptions and have either one, two or three bags delivered from 1-4 times monthly. Though Brazil may be their specialty, Nobletree roasts single origins from around the world, like Ethiopia, Guatemala and Colombia, so you’ll always be recieving an in-season bag to brew. However quickly you consume coffee, a Nobletree subscription should tide you over until the roaster opens its long-awaited café in the World Trade Center in Manhattan. (We told you they were high-end.)
Café Grumpy
https://www.instagram.com/p/BIuYdznj6Io/
Recommended Subscription: Bi-weekly Subscription, two 12 oz. bags every two weeks
$36
Café Grumpy’s been on the scene for more than a decade now, from the beginnings of their Greenpoint café to seven cafés throughout Brooklyn and Manhattan and a dedicated roastery just up the street from their original location. Their coffee and espresso subscriptions showcase the roaster’s portfolio of great single origins and blends, and are available as one to five bags at a time, once every one, two, three, or four weeks. First-time subscriptions come with a cheerful/grumpful Café Grumpy logo mug. And if you’re taking it easy on the caffeine? Café Grumpy is one of the few companies to offer a decaf subscription. Lucky for you, their caffeine-free beans are among the best in the city.
Devocíon
https://www.instagram.com/p/BJ1UBvqjiGJ/
Recommended Subscription: Roaster’s Pick Subscription, two 12 oz. bags every two weeks
$39
One of Brooklyn’s most striking cafés—you’ve surely been inside to admire the two-storey living wall?—also boasts one of its most unusual coffee-roasting business models. A Colombia-based company, Devocíon ships its green coffee direct from origin via Federal Express to ensure your beans are about as fresh as humanly possible—at least in New York City—from farm to cup. Order a one-, two- or three-bag subscription shipped freshly to you every one, two, three or four weeks from their roastery near the Williamsburg waterfront. Likely to be the freshest coffee you could get sent to your abode, and all from a coffee-growing country with a nearly year-round harvest season.
Supercrown
https://www.instagram.com/p/BLBVJxHjVg5/
Recommended Subscription: Bi-weekly Subscription, two 250 g boxes of coffee every two weeks
$27
When this posh Bushwick café opened at the beginning of 2016, subscriptions were always planned to be a cornerstone of the business, and unlike other Brooklyn roasters, their coffee is available mailorder only in subscription form—you’re just going to have to trust their decisions. Roasting in back of the upscaled warehouse space—it’s a former auto shop—just off of Flushing Avenue, the boutique roaster offers tailored subscriptions of one to three boxes a week—note that these, like Parlor’s, tend towards the smaller side—at intervals of one to four times a month.
Toby’s Estate
https://www.instagram.com/p/BEo9eW-ELfz/
Recommended Subscription: Staff Favorites Bi-weekly Subscription, one 12 oz. bags of coffee every two weeks
$43.75 (minimum of three months’ subscription)
Duration-based subscriptions make the perfect gift, and Northside Williamsburg roaster Toby’s Estate offers both three- and six-month options to give someone the gift that keeps on giving their mailbox that delicious smell. Their roasters will select for you or your lucky gift recipeient “coffees that show prominent sweetness, elegant body and delicate acidity”—well, we don’t mind if we do!
Driftaway
https://www.instagram.com/p/BI-0ksODApL/
Recommended Subscription: Bi-weekly Subscription, one 11 oz. bag of coffee every two weeks
$16
Though you may not have heard of them, Red Hook micro-roaster Driftaway Coffee prides itself on a highly bespoke subscription model: a coffee subscription that learns as it goes. Each new subscription begins with a special tasting kit, to allow you to begin building your personal coffee profile in their customized app. With each coffee Driftaway sends your way, you’ll continue to offer feedback and tasting notes the roaster will use to continue to meet your needs—and preferences—on an evolving basis. Driftaway groups its coffee into simple verticals like “Fruity”, “Classic”, “Balanced” and “Bold”, making one of each style available at all times through their rotating cast of seasonal beans. If you’re the type that prefers to be hands-on with your bean selections, while not actually leaving the house to buy anything, this subscription is for you.
Photo credit: Facebook/Parlor Coffee
