MOKKA traces its first coffee shop to 1923, a few steps from the Central Market, and its awards include a World Ibrik title; The Underdog, founded in 2015, has won the World Coffee in Good Spirits Championship twice. Seven of these eight businesses roast their own coffee, from a roastery in the city centre and roasters inside the cafés to plants in Agios Stefanos, Ano Liosia and Peristeri, and several also roast Greek coffee for the briki. The eighth, Foyer Espresso Bar, pours guest roasters from Europe and New York. These coffee shops in Athens are spread from Thissio, Petralona and the streets below the Acropolis to Kolonaki, Pagrati, Kypseli and Ampelokipi.
The Underdog, Thissio and Kypseli
The Underdog opened its flagship coffee bar in Thissio on 5 May 2015. The team had roasted specialty coffee since 2011, but with the new project it counted itself the underdog of the Greek coffee scene, and the dog in its logo carries scars and a bottle for one leg. It won the World Coffee in Good Spirits Championship in 2015 and 2016, and its baristas won the Greek Barista Championship in 2018 and 2019, placing fourth at the World Barista Championship in 2018 and second in 2019, by its own account the highest ranking Greece has reached. The coffee is roasted on an IRM and a Giesen, up to 2.5 tonnes a week, and every bag is packed by hand. Thissio serves brunch every day, inside and in a backyard, and takes bookings online only while keeping more seats for walk-ins. In Kypseli, a partner espresso bar opened in 2025 on the Underdog’s compact franchise format, pouring coffee from the same Athens roastery.
Taf Coffee, central Athens
Taf Coffee is the coffee company of I. Taloumis & Co, with its roastery in Agios Stefanos, north of Athens, and the Taf Coffee Shop in central Athens, where the baristas talk guests through the story behind each origin. Taf buys through a direct relationship programme, building long-term relationships with producers and visiting their farms every year, and roasts each coffee to its own profile, with an in-house laboratory cupping green and roasted coffee. The range runs from the Taloumis Family Limited Reserve, with lots such as a liberica from Malaysia and a geisha from Iris Estate, to single estates, espresso and filter blends and Greek coffee. Since 2010 Taf baristas and coffees have reached top places in national and international competitions, and Yiannis Taloumis received the Specialty Coffee Association’s Excellence Award for Innovation in 2011 and its Lifetime Achievement Award in 2014. Taf also runs an SCA Premier Training Campus.
KUDU Coffee Roasters, Pagrati and Neo Psychiko
KUDU Coffee Roasters roasts every day on four machines: a Giesen W45 for its production blend and larger single origins, a Giesen W6 for smaller lots and lighter profiles, a Giesen W1 for competition coffees and samples, and a Nucleus Link for sampling rare coffees before a whole lot is bought. Every roasted batch is cupped. Thanasis Nikolis, who won the Hellenic Barista Championship in 2013, has led roasting and research since that year, and executive roaster Alexandros Ferras was Hellenic National Roasting Champion in 2019. The Neo Psychiko shop has an industrial look and a brunch menu; the newer Pagrati shop, on the square, keeps the industrial style in brighter colours and serves handmade pastries.
Samba Coffee Roasters, Kolonaki and Ampelokipi
Samba Coffee Roasters is a family business founded in 1979 by Stefanos Kalafatas and owned today by his son Kostas, an Authorized SCA Trainer. It began producing its own filter and espresso coffee in 1995 and roasts at its own plant in Ano Liosia, with laboratories and the Samba Café Sensory Lab for seminars. Its microlots from Honduras, Guatemala and Rwanda are roasted for espresso or filter, a Competition Coffees line holds Panamanian geishas the team brought back from Panama, and its Greek coffee Extra Dark Blend is based on the founder’s 1979 recipe. By its own account, Samba held the first coffee tasting seminar in Greece in 2005, and its baristas won the Hellenic Barista Championship in 2022 and 2023. The flagship, The Shop, opened in Kolonaki in 2020, and Crossroads followed in Ampelokipi in 2021.
MOKKA, by the Central Market
MOKKA occupies a neoclassical building of 1,000 square metres beside the Central Market, where Chris Samourkas opened the family’s first coffee shop in 1923, serving coffee freshly roasted and ground. The family went on to build BRAVO, which held more than 60% of the Greek coffee market when it was sold in 1994. In 1999 Nikos Psomas renovated the building and founded MOKKA as a specialty roaster, and in 2001 it bought its first Cup of Excellence lot; Nikos is a Cup of Excellence juror, and MOKKA’s awards include Stavros Lambrinidis’s World Ibrik Championship title in 2014. MOKKA buys direct, imports most lots once a year two months after harvest, and roasts medium and deep, aiming to keep roasty and burnt notes out of the cup. Its espresso blend and its Greek Special come from the Monte Alegre farm in Brazil, and the list runs to Guatemalan Pacamara and geisha from Santa Felisa, Ethiopian lots from Moplaco and Panamanian geishas. The building holds the traditional coffee shop, the café, a training centre and the roastery.
Coffee Dive, Petralona, the Acropolis and Agios Dimitrios
Coffee Dive opened in Petralona in November 2014. Its founder, Andreas Stavropoulos, learned about coffee years earlier in a shop in Concord, a suburb of Sydney, roasting everything from simple Brazilian coffees to Cup of Excellence lots with its owner. The name comes from American slang: a dive was once a disreputable place, often in a basement, and the dive bar is now a badge of honour for authenticity. Every coffee is single-origin, at least 14 are available at any time, and they are roasted daily inside the shops and ground for each cup, with brewing methods that include the French balloon of 1780 and the Belgian royal siphon of 1830. The current list includes a San Bernardo from Javier Rubio in Tolima aged in rum barrels and a Tabi from Jairo Arcila fermented with lemongrass. There are shops in Kato Petralona, below the Acropolis and in Agios Dimitrios.
Cafeistas, Peristeri
Cafeistas is the specialty project of Coffee Republic, started in 2011 as “The Complete Coffee Experience” under one roof in the industrial area of Peristeri, in the west of Athens. Production, roasting, packing and storage are open to visitors, a large glass window separates the coffee shop from the roastery, and the first floor holds an SCA Premier Training Campus. By its own account Cafeistas was the first coffee company in Greece to roast on Loring machines, an S35 Kestrel and an S70 Peregrine, and most of its coffees need more than 30 days after roasting to reach their sweet point. Every coffee in the range can be ordered in the coffee shop as espresso or as filter, among them a Gesha from Luz Helena Salazar in Quindío and a natural from the Brazilian farm that won the natural category of the Cup of Excellence 2025.
Foyer Espresso Bar, Pagrati
Foyer Espresso Bar was opened in 2015 by two coffee enthusiasts from different professional backgrounds, as a neighbourhood café in Pagrati where the local community can get together, with cuppings and coffee events. Its seasonal menu comes from roasters in Europe and beyond, chosen for long-term partnerships with farmers, prices well above market and Fair Trade levels and transparent practices, and two or three of them may feature in a month. The coffees served at the bar are sold for home as well, from Coffee Collective, DAK, Three Marks, SEY and April among others.
What you need to know about Athens specialty coffee
Which Athens coffee shops roast their own coffee? The Underdog, Taf, KUDU, Samba, MOKKA, Coffee Dive and Cafeistas all roast their own. Foyer Espresso Bar pours guest roasters from Europe and New York.
Where is the coffee roasted? Taf roasts in Agios Stefanos, Samba in Ano Liosia and Cafeistas in Peristeri, where the roastery can be seen from the coffee shop. MOKKA roasts in its building by the Central Market, Coffee Dive inside its shops, and The Underdog in its Athens roastery for both its bars.
Which roasters have champions behind them? The Underdog won the World Coffee in Good Spirits Championship in 2015 and 2016 and came second at the World Barista Championship in 2019. Samba’s baristas won the Hellenic Barista Championship in 2022 and 2023, KUDU’s Thanasis Nikolis won it in 2013 and Alexandros Ferras the Hellenic National Roasting Championship in 2019, and MOKKA’s awards include Stavros Lambrinidis’s World Ibrik Championship title in 2014.
Where can you buy Greek coffee from a specialty roaster? Samba’s Greek coffee Extra Dark Blend is based on the founder’s 1979 recipe, MOKKA roasts a Greek Special from Monte Alegre in Brazil, and Taf’s range includes Greek coffee.
Where can you learn about coffee? Taf and Cafeistas run SCA Premier Training Campuses, Samba holds official SCA seminars, The Underdog’s Authorized SCA Trainers run Coffee Diploma workshops, and MOKKA is an Authorized SCA Trainer.
Where is the brunch? The Underdog serves brunch every day in Thissio, KUDU has a brunch menu in Neo Psychiko and handmade pastries in Pagrati.
Photo credits
Photographs belong to the businesses and are reproduced from their official websites with attribution.
