The duo roasts their coffee in the basement with beans from Brazil, Ethiopia, Sumatra, Columbia, Timor, and Kenya.
When the shop opened on Saint Patrick’s Day, the roaster was upstairs, but Raimo said it was too loud and smoky. The father-son business experiments with many different blends of coffee and its 4-bean espresso but also sell each country’s roasts individually by the pound.
The shop also sells a variety of Coffee. “We’re kind of doing what we like to do,” Raimo said. “We’re not trying to be Starbucks.” While there are plenty of coffee shops in the city, this is the first that focuses on quality and the best coffee from around the world. “It’s an experience,” Raimo said. “You can’t get that anywhere else.
A Few Words Before We Started
MILLBURN, NJ – Downtown Millburn is about to become a bit more caffeinated, as The Coffee Mill Roasters prepares to open at 41 Main Street. The new shop is a project born out of a passion for coffee by longtime Millburn businessman, Gennaro Raimo, who hopes to have the shop open in a week or so.
“The key to great coffee is freshness,” Raimo said. To that end, he will be custom-roasting beans from around the world in the shop daily. One needs only to talk to Raimo for a few minutes to realize that his love for all things coffee runs deep. Why else would he choose to open in a town with three successful purveyors of coffee already?
“Our shop is going to be different. A small boutique that will sell better coffee,” Raimo said, confident that there is room in Millburn for a shop like his. There are plans for a menu of coffees from beans of at least ten different origins, in addition to house blends of both light and dark roasts. The shop will also feature a variety of non-coffee drinks, breakfast pastries, desserts and gelato.
Raimo graciously demonstrated for me the roasting machine as he prepared a fresh batch of beans for espresso. He explained to me the finer points of roasting and then resting the beans for two days to allow carbon dioxide to escape from the beans, improving the flavor. The espresso he poured for me was exemplary.
For the best coffee flavor, Raimo told me that, “once you roast the beans, you should use them within 15 days, and once you grind the beans, you should use them within 15 seconds. That’s what will set us apart.”
The Coffee Mill Roasters is a coffee shop based in Millburn, NJ.