MOKKA SPECIALITY COFFEE

Nikos Psomas

Nikos Psomas is proud to continue a story of four generations and that represents a very important part of the Greek coffee history. Nikos is the grandson of Dimitrios Apostolidis and son Antonios Psoma. The first is the founder of BRAVO company, which pioneered the Greek market for many years, and the second the owner of Brazilian Coffee Store Street, the first store that served espresso coffee in Greece.

These two showed little Nikos the secrets of coffee, after all the secrets of roasting are not studyed anywhere. As a child Nikos was "drenched" into coffee, either working in the coffee shops or at the Brazilian coffee store on Voukourestiou 1 Street. The coffee aromas and coffees varieties were familiar to Nikos since a kid. At the age of 19 he studied BSc - Engineering, at the University of Westminster in London. After completing his studies, he began designing, along with his grandfather, the first fully automated coffee shop in Greece, perhaps in the world (see Mokka coffee shop ).

In parallel and at age twenty four years old he traveled to the best plantations in Brazil. From there he introduced the Speciality Coffee in Greece. He was the first to import certified Specialty coffee, varieties like Mundo Novo, Catuai and the famous Bourbon, processed by Natural, Pulp Natural and Fully Washed. These varieties was used to make the top selling espresso blend, Mokka Fine. A new chapter for coffee market in Greece was just starting ... Nikos Psomas specializes in roasting all varieties of coffee and cupping.

As a connoisseur is the first Greek as a member of the International Jury of the Cup of Excellence, with four entries in competitions in 2000, 2005, 2007 and 2008. In 2005 he also won the fifth place in the World Championship tasting. Member of the European SpecialityCoffee Association belongs to the first group to be certified as SCAE Authorized-Trainer. Since then he has certified many Baristas with the Basic Barista diploma,Barista Level 2 as well as he has done many seminars on cupping.

From 2010 he is the SCAE National coordinator and in 2011 he was honored to be awarded with the Best Nation Award as the leader of the Greek team in Maastricht, Holland. The story continues ....