Handpickers Coffee Roasters, based in Kallithea in Athens, started as an idea in 2015 and began roasting coffee from small producers in April 2017. It works directly with small farmers, visiting farms and tasting coffees at origin, and prefers coffee harvested by hand. Its aim is long-term, fair relationships between producer and consumer.

Every coffee is roasted on a 35 kg Loring Smart Roaster, which uses hot air, and every batch then passes through a Sovda optical sorter that removes beans below standard. New batches are cupped every week, and a coffee that misses its flavour profile does not move forward. The sorting step also produces the Carry Over Espresso Blend, made from exceptional beans found among the rejects.

The range is led by single origins roasted for espresso, from Colombia, Ethiopia, Honduras, Costa Rica, Rwanda, Uganda, Indonesia and more, with each roast date and the Q grader’s cupping score given for the lot. Filter roasts, a decaf, house espresso blends and a Greek coffee blend for the ibrik sit alongside them, and a Reserved selection holds rarer lots such as Gesha Village auction coffees and geishas from the Hartmann family in Panama. Handpickers also sells tea blends and chocolate chosen on the same principles.

The Kallithea roastery runs a two-hour Roastery Tour and Tasting Experience: a tour of the facilities, cupping, sample roasting and the journey from green bean to cup. Seminars and tasting events are part of the programme too. Its coffee is poured by partner cafés across Greece and sold on the shelf at Chill House in London.

Partner cafés

Coffee on the shelf

Photograph: Handpickers Coffee Roasters