Just a few days ago, a list was published featuring the best coffee shops in the world. The criteria for selection go beyond just the quality of the coffee—everything from the barista’s skills, the quality of food, the ambiance, the location, sustainability practices, and customer service are considered.
The final list of the top 100 coffee shops in the world—theworlds100bestcoffeeshops—takes into account public voting, which accounts for 30% of the final score, and the opinions of a panel of experts, which make up the remaining 70%. Only those coffee shops with the highest overall scores make the list.
Here are the top 20 coffee shops in the world:
- Toby’s Estate Coffee Roasters, Australia
- Onyx Coffee LAB, USA
- Gota Coffee Experts, Austria
- Proud Mary Coffee, Australia
- Tim Wendelboe, Norway
- Apartment Coffee, Singapore
- Kawa, France
- Coffee Anthology, Australia
- Story of Ono, Malaysia
- Tropicalia Coffee, Colombia
- Espressolab, South Africa
- Hola Coffee Lagasca, Spain
- Casa Canela, Venezuela
- Alquimia Coffee, El Salvador
- Kross Coffee Roasters, Greece
- MOK Coffee, Belgium
- Prevail Coffee, USA
- Yardstick, Philippines
- Veneziano Coffee Roasters, Australia
- Puku Puku, Peru
In a highly honored 15th place sits a coffee shop from Crete, the only one representing Greece in this global list of the top 100 coffee shops.
I’m talking about Kross Coffee Roasters, located in Chania, on Tsouderon Street, which has been around for 8 years!
The three founders of Kross Coffee Roasters are Katerina Mavromataki, Stavros, and Sotos Michail.
Behind this award-winning café in Chania are two women from different parts of Greece—one from Heraklion and one from Karditsa.
Dina Fotiadi and Manto Psychogiu are the proud owners of the café, which they acquired as a franchise, the only one in Greece.
As for Dina, I can’t be impartial. She’s a girl I’ve known since childhood, a person with an unshakable character, and an excellent basketball player. Everyone will speak highly of her ethics, character, and work ethic.
Her move from Heraklion to Chania initially happened due to basketball. “In 2019, I transferred to the Chania basketball team in the A2 category, and I moved to Chania, where I started living with Manto (she was the team’s coach). That’s when we met and became friends!” Dina Fotiadi explains to patris.gr.
“As time passed, the team’s financial issues forced me to find a job! So, I saw an ad for Kross Coffee Roasters and sent in my CV! They hired me, and I started working there!” she continues, explaining how it all began.
“When the basketball season ended, I didn’t leave because I liked the shop and the environment, and I wanted to stay for the summer! The summer turned into winter, and then came the first lockdown. I went back to Heraklion, but I decided to return permanently to Chania. When I came back, a colleague who worked with me at the café had quit, and they asked me to cover for him until they found someone. And that’s when I stayed for good!”
She goes on: “During the second lockdown, I was still working! In a conversation with Sotos Michail (one of the founders), I jokingly said I should take the Tsouderon location as a franchise, which at the time was a roastery! A short time later, Sotos came to me and said he had found a space to relocate the café and asked if I was interested in the franchise idea. I said, ‘Of course,’ but I couldn’t do it alone. He said I was the perfect person for the job and suggested I team up with my roommate, Manto. She agreed immediately, and so we began our journey in January 2022!” Dina excitedly shares, recounting how things evolved.
When asked what makes their café stand out and why it was chosen as the 15th best café in the world, Dina provides her own answer: “Every day, we get fresh sweets from the pastry shop at Kross. The team selects high-quality green coffee beans and roasts them themselves! All the shops follow a specific method! There’s training before anyone starts working! We have a variety of coffee origins, varieties, and processing methods!”
One of the secrets to their success and recognition is certainly their participation in festivals and competitions!
The following photo is from the World Coffee Championship in Copenhagen, where Kross Coffee Roasters also participated.
At 35 years old, Dina Fotiadi is an active member of the Platanias team, where Manto is the coach. Their friendship has now been cemented through a successful project, proving the truth behind Paulo Coelho’s quote in The Alchemist: “When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.”