Samba Coffee Roasters is a Greek family business, founded in 1979 by Stefanos Kalafatas and owned today by his son Kostas Kalafatas. Kostas is an Authorized SCA Trainer with the Q Processing Level 1 certificate and has organised coffee events in Greece as an SCA national coordinator. Samba began producing its own filter and espresso coffee in 1995, bought its roasting equipment in 2003 and finished its own factory in 2011. The roastery, with storage, packing, quality-control laboratories and the Samba Café Sensory Lab for seminars, is in Ano Liosia.

The range covers espresso, filter, organic and Greek coffee. Microlots from Honduras, Guatemala and Rwanda are roasted for espresso or filter, and a Competition Coffees line holds Panamanian geishas the team brought back from a visit to Panama, from Mima Estate and Finca Mil Cumbres among others. The Greek coffee Extra Dark Blend is based on the original recipe Stefanos Kalafatas has used since 1979.

By its own account, Samba organised the first coffee tasting seminar in Greece in 2005, held its first Meeting the Farmer event in 2018 and a Farmer’s Camp seminar series in Colombia in 2019, and runs official SCA seminars for beginners and professionals. Its baristas won the Hellenic Barista Championship in 2022 and 2023.

After a rebrand in 2020 Samba opened its flagship, The Shop, in Kolonaki, and in 2021 a second café, Crossroads, in Ampelokipi.

Coffee on the shelf

Photograph: Samba Coffee Roasters