Sensuous Street Chat

By Claudie Benjamin
The Upper West Side Beat

Born in the U.S., Lucretia La Mura’s parents and grandparents were from Matera, an Italian city and UNESCO World Heritage site, south toward Sicily. Though she has lived in New York City for many decades, her joie de vivre is not limited by geographic boundaries, but accompanies her adventurous life. This attitude offers the key to the enticing aroma of brewing coffee and welcoming atmosphere at the 350 sq. ft. Sensuous Bean. The remarkably successful coffee shop is at 66 West 70th Street in a building that also houses businesses around the corner on Columbus Avenue.

Owned by Lucretia and her life and business partner, Tom Wilson. The Sensuous Bean is now celebrating its 50th birthday. When people ask Lucretia suggestively, “Sensuous Bean, what’s that about?” She said she answers, “No, not lingerie–coffee.”

The Sensuous Bean has many, many regulars; some locals have been coming to the shop for decades.

After graduating from St. John’s University, Lucretia worked as a K-12 teacher and later as a medical technician assisting in GI procedures. “Then, I went to live in Rome for ten years. I took a hiatus,” she said. During those years, she tutored English and frequented just about every cafe in the wonderful Italian capital. On her return to New York, she was offered the opportunity to take over ownership of The Sensuous Bean, which had been started in a shop at 228 Columbus Avenue by Joe Humphre, an accountant she knew from visits with friends on Fire Island. “I said count me in,” Lucretia recalled. She then immersed herself in the ongoing process of learning everything she could about coffee growing and roasting. The shop was moved to its present location in 1990.

She explained she had a particular interest in working with small, struggling growers she discovered in Haiti and Brazil. Long before the focus on organics, these family-owned plantations didn’t use pesticides because they never could have afforded them. Her personal favorite among the very many coffees available at her shop is the Ethiopian Yirgacheffe and Harrar. A great many flavored coffees are sold at The Sensuous Bean – among the most popular hazelnut (hands-down favorite), crème brûlée and, over the past two years, pistachio. Tea drinkers and customers interested in tesanes, the non-caffeinated teas made from flower and herbal mixes, will find a wide array of options here. The tesanes combine flavors of herbs, flowers, and fruit: rosebud, hibiscus, and mint. Those like peach and blueberry contain little pieces of fruit. Want a little dolce (sweet) to go with that coffee or tea? The pastries here come from an Italian bakery in Brooklyn that’s been in business for 80 years, and from Balthazar.

The cozy piccolo enclave maintained its stance even with the emergence of Starbucks throughout the UWS in the 1990s. “People didn’t used to walk around with cups and tumblers of coffee, and it wasn’t a status thing where you bought your coffee.” The greatest impact of the advent of Starbucks on The Sensuous Bean was that it started its on-site coffee brewing – Customers from that point on could buy their coffees to sip along the way, and a lucky few snagged a seat at one of several tables out in front of the store.

Lucretia still lives in the house in Brooklyn where she raised her two children. Now, one is an attorney-turned-teacher, and the other is a teacher in Harlem. She comes to the shop Tuesdays, Saturdays, and Sundays. Her enthusiasm for the business is as great as ever. Perhaps the thing she values most among many joys of her work at the shop is her interactions with customers. “You learn so much if you really listen,” she said.

We have a new vacuum packed 12oz. Espresso Roman Bang. Since we are custom Blenders, we’ve blended a deep smooth new espresso. The combination is a single origin Venezuelan Maracaibo with our Italian Roast. Overtones of dark chocolate cocoa and smooth dense coffee taste without being bitter. The best espresso coffees are blends of different combinations of beans. Try to create your own blend.

Take a look at the coverage of our little shop as one of New York City’s Best Tea Spots:

The 10 Best Tea Places in NYC

We have in house a blissful Strawberry coffee and Red Velvet Cupcake, or any blend you want. All natural flavoring which the roasted bean absorbs right after they roast in barrels filled with these liquids and elixirs of true essence to complete the flavor process.

No sugar, no additives, no calories. Just Heavenly taste.

Tesane started in France as a personal signature fragrance for a young adolescent girl. That essence was for her…now it’s popular to drink warm Tesane tea-like drinks. Each Tesane is made of combinations of fruits, rooibos, and various particular blueberries, blood oranges, lemongrass, hibiscus, and let’s not forget rosehips. We sell at least 10 types of Tesane and combinations can be made for specific palates.

Enjoy your day and Think Tea!

Tippy China Yunnan Tea Yunnan is the birth place of Tea. South West in China, south of the Clouds. Yunnan tea is golden slender tipped leaves. Traditional for morning or early afternoon. A full taste with a slightly smoky finish. ENJOY!

Zimbabwe, formerly Rhodesia, has been exporting excellent coffee beans similar to a great Kenya. It is a wet-processed growing region with medium sized farms mainly from the Chipinge region near Mozambique. A truly complex body of winey and berry. The best small estate farms are Smaldeel and La Lucie. We at the Sensuous Bean sell much of this underestimated bean. We hit it with some of our own house Vienna, made of Colombian Excelso and Brazilan Bourbon. That’s a long secret of the Sensuous Bean, that is our very own Vienna roast.

This coffee is hand sorted. Grown in the highest altitudes of the Andes, it’s extremely rich in flavor, mellowness, and aroma with a very low acidic level. It’s truly respected by connoisseurs.

Bourbon is a botanical variety of coffee arabica–Bourbon first appeared on the island of BOURBON, now REUNION, Some of the best Latin American coffees are from Bourbon stock….