>>> <<<>>> Roasting <<<

We totally believe coffee in all its forms—whole bean, brewed, and espresso—should be an approachable, accessible luxury and pleasure. Our goal is to make our coffee a memorable addition to any experience and make the act of preparing and enjoying a cup of our coffee an experience itself. The pursuit of delicious coffee is a lifelong trip of discovery and sophistication from our side which we exist to share and serve. Our roasting team travels the globe trying to collect and discover in the field virtually every day of the year, sourcing new grower relationships.

We buy, roast and sell freshly harvested crops that are in season and we store the green beans in a climate controlled room. Every roasted batch undergoes a number of quality checks such as logging of the roast profiles, yet the most significant quality check is the cupping. We taste every single batch and we always strive to improve our roasting throughout the year.

An Inside View

After the green coffee enters to our roasting facilities a certain amount of processes follow but before that it is good to know about the roasting equipment. We roast on four machines actually. As distributors of Giesen in Greece and Cyprus we use Giesen W45 for our production blend and Single origins that we have in big amount and request. Giesen W6 is being used for the smaller lots and lighter profiles. Giesen W1 is being used generally for the competition coffees and as sample roasting when possible. In conclusion in almost every roastery an Ikawa roaster is there to help roasting small samples of mostly expensive and rare coffees before we decide to buy the whole lot. Our roasters are totally responsible to bring out the best of every coffee based on our guideline.

We roast daily and focus on freshness and sustainability as possible from seed to cup.

Quality matters

Before we roast, we analyze moisture content, color, the age of the green coffee, the origin, the processing method, and then we roast 4-6 batches depending on the amount, experimenting with gas and temperature, to see which roast yields to the best possible cup. Then we cup the different profiles after 24 and 48 hours. After 2 weeks, we brew espresso in specific profiles to see how it goes and to see how it ages and which flavors lingers. Our goal is, our customers to understand that the only thing we care is their taste experience, when they drink our coffees.

There is only one way to roast coffee. Love it and respect it.

Roasters

Thanasis Nikolis

Head of Roasting, Green coffee advisor and buyer, R&D Manager

With more than 18 years of experience in the coffee industry, Thanasis has been the Head of R&D and Roasting since the early days of the company (2013). His previous experience includes working as a barista, trainer, coach and human resources manager. He won the 1st place in the Hellenic Barista Championship in 2013 and reached the semifinals in the World Barista Championship in Melbourne the same year. Counts already 3 National Championships as a coach in Brewers, Roasting and Ibrik competitions.

Alexandros Ferras

Executive Roaster, R&D crew

Alexandros is the Hellenic National Roasting Champion for 2019 and placed 11th on the 2019 World Roasting Competition in Taiwan. He started in 2012 as a barista and soon became the KUDU Coffee shop supervisor and duty manager. Since 2016 he is in roasting process on the side of the head roaster with a goal to raise the quality standards in KUDU Coffee crew and company with continuous researching and training.