By Sarah Hucal
From a 140-year-old family legacy to specialty coffee for a new generation, Monogram is helping redefine how Hania drinks coffee. Coffee addict Sarah Hucal dives into the story of the Manolikakis family and explores the Greek style of slow sips, conversation, and community.
earlier in my life, I worked as a barista at a small roastery in Ann Arbor, Michigan. I loved seeing the same familiar faces from the community every day, smelling freshly roasted coffee in the air, and attempting latte art. I’ve since become a journalist, but I’ve stayed strangely loyal to this part of my past by unfailingly visiting my local specialty coffee shop each morning and ordering a flat white (or the occasional freddo espresso since moving to Greece!).
So naturally, on my first trip to Hania a few years ago, I immediately found my way to Monogram, the specialty coffee arm of Manolikakis, a fifth-generation family coffee roasting business. Since returning to Hania for a longer stay just over a month ago, I think I can safely say I’ve become a regular. Yet flat whites aren’t my only passion; I also love a good story and the Manolikakis family has one that dates all the way back to 1886!
A coffee lineage
The Manolikakis business is run by Eirini Manolikaki along with her husband, George Androulakis, who is primarily responsible for Monogram. Both are experienced coffee roasters. As we sat drinking cold brew in the company’s roastery, Eirini showed me a photograph of a man with a piercing gaze who would be a serious contender in a Cretan moustache competition: her great-grandfather, Konstantinos Manolikakis.
The illiterate son of a fighter in the Cretan independence movement, Konstantinos had a flair for business. He imported tea from Ceylon, sugar from Cuba, and eventually green coffee beans from Brazil.
In 1886, Konstantinos founded “Manolikakis”, widely regarded as the oldest operating coffee roastery in present-day Greece. Initially, coffee was ground manually in bowls at his shop on Kanevaro Street. He later imported the first steam-powered coffee grinder to Crete and, later still, a German-made Probat coffee roaster, a rarity at the time.
Hania was the capital of the semi-autonomous Cretan State (1898–1913) when Manolikakis operated the historic kafenio in the city’s municipal garden, Café “Kipos”, around 1900. The café was a meeting point and a center of intellectual life, where politics were discussed and ideas exchanged over small cups of Greek coffee. Greece’s later prime minister, Eleftherios Venizelos*, was a fan of the Manolikakis coffee blend, as was Crete’s High Commissioner at the time, Prince George.
The family continued roasting coffee commercially over the next five generations, at times expanding into other enterprises -from concentrated juices to a commercial beverage company- yet coffee roasting has remained at the heart of it all.
“I am attached to the smell of coffee, to the coffee roasting atmosphere, everything that has to do with coffee,” Eirini tells me.
She and George founded Monogram in 2018 to carve out their own niche within the family business and, as she explains, “prove something to ourselves.”
“We love specialty coffee and we wanted to be part of it, to create a café that can stand on its own in the new era and serve very high-quality specialty coffee. And so far, it’s been a success.”
What’s so special about specialty coffee?
‘Specialty coffee’ refers to coffee produced with exceptional care at every stage: from sourcing and processing to roasting and brewing. The focus is on transparency, quality, and flavors that reflect origin, from Ethiopia to Colombia.
While the term “specialty coffee” entered industry vocabulary in the 1970s, the movement truly took off in the late 1990s and 2000s, gaining much wider cultural traction in the 2010s.
It began as a countercultural trend in the Pacific Northwest of the United States, in cities like Seattle, Portland, and San Francisco. Known as “Third Wave” coffee, it emphasizes high-quality beans, traceable origins, and meticulous brewing techniques by highly trained baristas the kind you’ll find at Monogram and, increasingly, at other cafés too. Being a barista is a very popular profession among younger generations in Greece.
“Compared to northern European countries, we in Greece are behind in terms of specialty consumption. Ninety percent of shops here don’t sell specialty coffee,” Eirini points out.
While the average Greek consumes about 9.9 kilograms of coffee per year -more than many central European countries- and there is an incredible number of coffee chains, most of what’s on offer is fuller-bodied, dark-roasted, Italian-style coffee. It’s a far cry from specialty coffee, which tends to be higher in acidity and can sometimes taste fruity.
The different flavor profile hasn’t been a hit with everyone in Hania. Many locals have been reluctant to give it a try, Eirini explains.
“Coffee is a habit. You’re used to a certain taste, and if you get something else, you may be very critical. The initial reaction is often, ‘No, this is not what I know.’ Everyone has an idea of a ‘kafedara’ (a great coffee) usually something full-bodied that lingers in your mouth.”
But siga siga (slowly, slowly) as the saying goes. Adapting to new things takes time. Younger people, of course, have been more receptive to the Third Wave coffee trend. They are more open to experimentation and more interested in traceable origins.
Drinking coffee like a Greek
Even if specialty coffee is still catching on in Greece, coffee lovers -especially from Northern Europe or North America- have a lot to learn from Greek coffee culture.
I still laugh when I remember quickly gulping down a freddo espresso with a Greek friend a few years ago and daring to order a second. He looked at me and said, “Sarah, slow down! You have to drink it like a Greek!”
I needed to learn the Greek art of the slow sip (I’m still working on it).
Eirini puts it best:
“The main idea is: now I have my coffee, and I can relax and chat with friends, not be rushed or intense. When we say ‘pame gia café’, it means ‘let’s go for a chat’,
not ‘I need coffee for the caffeine.’” Of course, takeaway coffee exists, something for the commute or while working, but the social aspect remains central.
“We like to gather and share moments with friends or family. Social life is very important to us. And in smaller cities like Hania, distances are short, s o it’s easier to meet.”
It’s also worth noting that many coffee shops in Hania keep their machines running late -often until 9 p.m.- especially during the warmer months.
High quality speaks for itself
Monogram’s biggest boost, Eirini admits, has come from abroad.
“The fact that here in Crete we have foreigners coming for six months a year has given us the ability to experiment and the courage to move forward with the new wave of coffee.”
She notes that similar businesses in northern Greece, where there are fewer tourists, sometimes struggle more.
“If you have quality, people recognize it. They support you and encourage you and that feedback is essential when you’re doing something that isn’t yet widely popular locally.”
Despite specialty coffee not being the norm, Hania offers an impressive range of high-quality brews for a city of its size, something I couldn’t help but notice upon arrival. Competitor Kross has several locations, and one of their baristas recently won the Hellenic Brewers barista competition.
“We have strong competition at the micro-roastery level, and we perform well on the world stage in barista competitions,” Eirini says. “I think this intense competition is why Hania has progressed so much. We’ve made significant strides forward.”
Before I leave, Eirini shows me the new Manolikakis label marking the company’s 140th anniversary, before excitedly describing an Ethiopian coffee I absolutely must try.
There’s no doubt in my mind that coffee is her passion:
“Although we started Monogram as an independent project in 2018, we have always remained closely connected to the family roastery. Over the years, we’ve continued working together as a family. We’ve never compromised on our ethics or our quality. And I believe that’s why we’ve lasted so long.”
Quick history lesson in Greek politics
Eleftherios Venizelos
(1864–1936)
• Served multiple terms as Prime Minister between 1910 and 1933
• Key leader during the Balkan Wars (1912–1913), which doubled Greece’s territory
• Advocated the Megali Idea (expansion of Greece to include Greek populations in the Ottoman Empire)
• Led Greece into World War I on the side of the Allies (causing the National Schism)
• Associated with major modernization reforms (constitution, military, economy)
• Also linked to the Asia Minor Campaign, which ended in disaster (1922)
Ioannis Kapodistrias
(1776–1831)
• First head of state of independent Greece (Governor, 1828–1831)
• Former diplomat in the Russian Empire
• Took control after the Greek War of Independence
• Focused on building a centralized state, administration, army, and education system
• Faced strong opposition from local elites and warlords
• Assassinated in 1831 in Nafplio
Similarities
• The only two politicians in modern Greek history who enjoy broad acceptance among most Greeks
Key difference
• Kapodistrias: Founder of the state
• Venizelos: Builder and expander of the state
