There are not too many coffee places that go out of their way to help the farmers and migrants who grow the coffee beans. Georgio’s Coffee Roasters is a hidden gem located off an industrial stretch of Farmingdale at 1965 New Highway that has helped in the plight of the farmers and pickers who procure some of the finest coffee beans in the world.
“We travel to over a hundred farms in seven different countries around the world and pay for some of the finest and rarest coffee beans to bring back to our store,” said store owner Georgio Testani. “We take annual trips to remote farms in countries such as the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Colombia and Jamaica and help to build houses in those countries.”
Testani and his wife Lydia have been in the coffee business for 26 years. He has been in the Farmingdale location for five years and before that had a store in Huntington.
It is all about coffee when you walk in through the glass doors of Georgio’s Coffee Roasters. One you are inside you are surrounded by all things coffee. In front of you is a glass case filled with unique coffee blends and on the mustard yellow colored walls hang multiple photographs of coffee scenes from around the globe.
There are three coffee roasters including two giant Probat roasters, an authentic espresso/cappuccino machine and a siphon-halogen-powered burner straight out of a science fiction lab. Big burlap sacks of coffee beans, some weighing 150 pounds, cover the floors of the store
There is no WiFi service or food available at Georgio’s and discussion topics range from Testani’s recent coffee excursions to the latest piece of brewing equipment on the market.
“The discussion is all about coffee here and that is the way we like it,” said Testani. “We have people who come here from Manhattan, Brooklyn and the Hamptons to pick up coffee orders. We are a destination for a lot of people because of the rarity of our coffee blends. Only a handful of people bring in this caliber of coffee.”
Testani said he wholesales to 30-40 different accounts on the East Coast but that the majority of his customers are walk-ins or people coming off the parkways for coffee. A lot of his business also comes from word of mouth.
The store’s coffee lineup features blends such as hachira, El Salvador pacamara, Rwanda gishamwana and Colombia wush wush, which has a deep citrus red wine flavor to it.
As far as Starbucks, Dunkin Donuts and other major competitiors, Testani says he gets along fine with those coffee outlets.
“I visit their corporate offices on occasion and they have been down to visit my store many times. We just talk industry and harbor no ill will towards one another,” he said.
The store is open Tuesday to Friday from 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. and on Saturday from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. The store is closed on Sunday and Monday.
For more information call 516-238-2999 or visit www.georgioscoffee.com.
