Porto Rico Importing Co.

Great stores for coffee beans. Open burlap bags build a lot of characteristics, but I have my reservation if the coffee beans lose their fragrance. Still, this is an old store, and we love the old New York feel to it.

The best place to get your fresh coffee beans. Brewing these beans give an amazing aroma, and a perk-up feeling in the morning! One of my fave place in the city.

Live in the neighborhood and first time here. I came in on Saturday, December 23rd at 11:45am. There was a small line and once I got to the register, a young woman helped me. I told her I was looking for a holiday gift and asked her to pick any popular bean for me. I asked if she could put it in one of those boxes I saw gift wrapped by the window and she said it was a preset box. I asked two more questions about it and decided to get it but her demeanor was very cold and standoffish and the whole interaction felt like I was the one inconveniencing her and she seemed visibly annoyed with me and slightly condescending. I bought it anyway and of course no thank you or smile or any words from her at the end of it. Actually I was the one to say thank you to her. Probably won’t come back and staff need to be friendlier to customers or at least at baseline not rude.

An Unfortunate sign of the times. The Brooklyn store was closed, and I recently stopped to buy a couple of pounds of their Brazil Roast, but when I went to pay, I saw it was now $16.00 a pound. As a 30+ year customer, I'm disgusted at the raging price increases, and most without any other reason than GREED. What I loved about supporting Porto Rico was that it is a local roaster and not a corporate Starbucks nonsense. As a business owner, I'm cognizant of increasing operational expenses. However, what is the Return on Investment when customers are kept away by inconvenience and pricing? Or has the business reached the point of diminishing returns? Unfortunately, I can no longer support Porto Rico as Driving to the other island to buy beans is not cost-effective. $34 for two pounds of beans is unacceptable.

I've been to Porto Rico Importing on the east village 3 times. The first one was just fine, I got the daily brew and was quick and somewhat easy. The other two experiences were very similar and very disappointing. The staff sounded rude to me and didn't really seem to care at all about my business. I felt I was doing them a favor. With so many offerings of good coffee in the EV (LA Cabra is right around the corner) I'd just get beans somewhere else. And, honestly, their coffee isn't even that good, they just have a large selection. I did not dare to ask the roast date so you might even be buying stale coffee.