KUDU roasts its own coffee and runs two coffee shops in Athens. The Neo Psychiko shop is a renewed, modern space with an industrial flair and a brunch menu. The newer Pagrati shop keeps the industrial style with brighter colour patterns and serves handmade pastries. Both sell KUDU’s coffees, capsules and teas alongside its own T-shirts, tote bags, notebooks and MiiR tumblers. The shops are built as an all-day format combining coffee, brunch and retail, and KUDU plans to grow through joint ventures with a limited number of partners, up to 15 locations, rather than franchising.

Roasting runs daily on four machines. A Giesen W45 handles the production blend and the single origins bought in larger quantities, a Giesen W6 the smaller lots and lighter profiles, and a Giesen W1 the competition coffees and sample roasts, with a Nucleus Link for samples of rare coffees before a whole lot is bought. Green coffee is kept in a climate-controlled room. Before a new coffee is released, the team roasts four to six test batches, cups them at 24 and 48 hours and brews it as espresso after two weeks to see how the coffee ages. Every roasted batch is cupped.

Thanasis Nikolis has led roasting and research since 2013 and buys the green coffee. He won the Hellenic Barista Championship in 2013, reached the semi-finals of the World Barista Championship in Melbourne that year and has coached national champions in brewing, roasting and ibrik. Executive roaster Alexandros Ferras, who started as a barista in 2012 and became supervisor of the KUDU coffee shop, was Hellenic National Roasting Champion in 2019. KUDU also sells the competitor tickets for the 9th Hellenic AeroPress Championship, whose winner represents Greece at the 2026 World AeroPress Championship in Mexico City.

Coffee on the shelf

Photograph: KUDU Coffee Roasters