Coffee is an undeniable part of Puerto Rican culture. That is clear in the boom of coffee shops during the 2010s and in the success of the Coffee & Chocolate Expo, an event that has brought together and celebrated the local coffee industry for 14 years.
According to a study by the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez, local coffee shops contribute an estimated $17,879,400 a year to the coffee industry.
Countless entrepreneurs enter the market every year, but others have built concepts that are expanding across the Island.
That is what happened with Friend's Café, a local chain with 8 stores in the west that will soon expand to other regions of the Island through a franchise model.
Its distinctive coffee bean and seasonal drinks have earned the loyalty of thousands, but innovation has always been at the heart of this Puerto Rican company.
"Everything was in constant evolution […]. You always have to keep an eye on trends, and you have to keep innovating," said Wilmer Ramírez, owner and co-founder of Friend's Café, in an interview with Platea.
The coffee shop concept in Cabo Rojo
The idea sparked in 2006, when he and his wife Evelyn celebrated their honeymoon in Hawaii. There, they visited a coffee shop, and the experience made them notice an opportunity: the west of Puerto Rico was missing something like it, where gourmet coffee shops were scarce.
Determined to be the first, Wilmer and Evelyn devoted an hour a day to the business while keeping their jobs at the Municipio de Cabo Rojo.
In 2007, they presented a refined plan, and a bank approved the loan that funded their first store in la Cuna de Betances. With that decisive step, they left their jobs to focus on the business.
"There was nothing. In Cabo Rojo, we were the first to open a place with air conditioning, with furniture […]. We did it to lean into the vision of Friends, the American series," was how Ramírez described the concept of that first store, which appealed to young adults and served as a gathering place for friends and families.
The reception was positive, but there were challenges. That first year, they had to build a customer base that valued gourmet coffee and would pay the $2 a drink could cost at the time.
"I was going to educate people so they would know that yes, it was a specialty coffee, that to get to that cup it had to go through a chain […], a completely different process from what the supermarket shelf coffee was," he explained.
Success in Mayagüez and the student pulse
Careful observation led Ramírez to open his second store at Plaza Colón in Mayagüez. All it took was an auction notice. Seeing the empty kiosk, he remembered how close the Colegio de Mayagüez was, and once again young adults proved to be some of the chain's most important customers.
Although others proposed opening a coffee shop there, a year and a half of success in Cabo Rojo served as a calling card to win the auction against 23 other entrepreneurs. Even knowing the challenge that crime posed in the historic downtown in 2008, he bet on the concept.
The entrepreneur recounted that they held a soft opening, unannounced, as a practice run. That same Sunday, they sold the entire week's inventory.
With that successful opening, the kiosk became the go-to spot to share a coffee or grab drinks to fuel a night of studying.
At the same time, they faced another challenge: access to the Cabo Rojo store was blocked by nearby renovations. With sales declining, they closed the space where it all began, but they pressed on, sustained by the success of the kiosk, which at one point covered the expenses of both locations.
Eventually, the chain opened locations in La Parguera, Lajas, and at Plaza de Rincón, but beyond running a sustainable business, the owners have always aimed to grow through innovation, seizing opportunities they had never imagined.
Growing the bean
Friend's serves a coffee made from an arabica bean grown in Puerto Rico, produced exclusively for the chain. Today, Gustos Coffee Co. cultivates this roast for them, a medium, dark, chocolatey blend selected by the owners.
For Ramirez, it was essential to choose a roast that was "pleasant for every kind of palate."
"The roast is one of the most important things for making coffee pleasant to the taste, or making it a little more bitter, or giving it a burnt feel," he added.
Although they previously sourced their beans from another supplier, success brought greater demand for materials. Keeping a consistent menu meant keeping every location stocked.
To do that, they opened a warehouse to supply nearby franchises, while a boom in coffee shops was taking hold in the west. Those shops also needed supplies, and the convenience of the warehouse drew them to try sourcing from there.
It wasn't until they faced another challenge that they finally turned it into an essential part of the company: Millennials Factory.
"With [Hurricane] María, I lost everything I had in that warehouse, and that's what pushed me to say, 'I'm going to buy merchandise again,' but I'm going to put it under a roof, get a patent for it, and sell it to everyone, to make it a real business structure," Ramírez said of the space he converted into a store, with a coffee bar and a warehouse stocked with everything a barista would need.
Many of the coffee shops in the area source most of their supplies here. Today, it is the highest-grossing FC (Friends Café), LLC. location, according to Ramírez.
Filtering in innovation
Even with a successful warehouse and three solid locations, the desire to try something new persisted. As the wave of enthusiasm for gourmet coffee kept growing, who was being left out of the experience?
People who couldn't sit down for a cup but would happily take one to go.
"We can meet the need for people to take a good coffee, made by a barista [...], they can get it in less time, they don't have to get out of the car at a coffee shop," he pointed out.
The opening of Friend's first drive-through coincided with the 2020 earthquakes and, two months later, with the COVID-19 pandemic.
Without knowing it, those two events would create a niche for the chain: under the executive orders for social distancing, they were the only local coffee shop open in Mayagüez, and sales were massive.
Taking that first drive-through as a success story, they decided to turn the drive-through model into a franchise. Together with All Around Franchise Consultants, they created a protocol for selling Friend's Café franchises.
The first franchise under this model opened last year in Isabela. Each franchise carries an estimated total investment of $80,000, according to the chain's website.
Ramírez explained that he recommends an additional reserve to cover operating expenses during the first weeks of each franchise.
He confirmed, however, that the Isabela franchise did not need it, and that sales in the first weeks covered all expenses, with the owners beginning to see a return on their investment.
Today, the chain has 5 confirmed franchises in development: two in Aguadilla, one in Juana Díaz, one more in Mayagüez, and one in Bayamón, the first to open in the metro area.
A replicable model for the whole island
Staying ahead of trends, introducing new drinks, and maintaining a quality standard have helped keep the chain solid in the gourmet coffee industry, and they envision the chain reaching the entire island.
"I'm going to do it all across Puerto Rico, so you can drive around Puerto Rico on Route 2 and always find a Friend's where you can go through the drive-through and pick up your drink," Ramírez said.
Beyond growth, Ramírez highlighted the value of a sense of community, whether by contributing to essential causes or supporting local organizations.
Part of Friend's menu is supplied by desserts and food made by local small-business owners, distributed across all its franchises.
The owner recalled with pleasure how some former employees have gone on to start their own coffee shops, with the knowledge and love for coffee they developed there.
In an industry that is changing but solid, there will always be room for one more place to enjoy a coffee. What matters, he stressed, is to do it wholeheartedly, enjoy what you do, do things differently from others, and "find a reason that moves you" beyond generating income.
This content was translated with the assistance of Artificial Intelligence (AI).
