Cafés in Georgia Tbilisi

Turkuli: coffee in Georgian homes

Before espresso machines spread, coffee in Georgia meant turkuli, Turkish coffee (თურქული ყავა, turkuli qava), served in a small porcelain cup.⁴⁵ A heaped spoon of ground coffee, often with several spoons of sugar, goes into cold water and is heated in a small copper pot or an electric kettle. In Georgian homes this is still the usual way to make coffee.⁴

Beans came from market dealers, who sold them by the scoop from plastic buckets. At the main bazaar next to Tbilisi's central railway station, one dealer mixed house blends from more than a dozen kinds of beans.⁴ Instant was the other everyday choice: in 2001, the best a neighborhood market might offer was a can of Pele instant powder.⁶

Espresso and the first roasters

In 2001, espresso was hard to find in Tbilisi; one writer could name only the Marriott and Prospero's, an English-language bookshop.⁶ Café Gabriadze, in the old town, is older: it opened in 1996 beside the Gabriadze Theater at 13 Ioane Shavteli Street, with an interior by the artist and director Rezo Gabriadze, and its terrace faces his clock tower.⁹

Roasting came next. In October 2010 Ruben Avetisian, from Yerevan, put a roaster into a storefront on Perovskaya (Akhvlediani) Street for Le Café du Monde, since closed, and named his blends after the painter Pirosmani and the director Parajanov. In 2015, most local restaurants and cafés still bought mass-produced Lavazza.⁴ Coffee Lab opened on Alexander Kazbegi Avenue in Saburtalo in 2016, roasts on a Giesen and represents more than twenty equipment brands.⁸ By 2021 its wholesale arm supplied more than 150 hotels, restaurants, cafés and offices.⁷

Meama and the industrial roasters

Meama, a Georgian coffee company, imported beans from 18 countries by 2021 and roasted them in Tbilisi.⁷ Its owners have invested more than ₾100 million in it. A July 2025 FinSpot analysis found Meama and the roaster Cherie running at a loss, while Mondo, which also sells imported coffee and equipment, was consistently profitable.¹

Tbilisi neighborhoods and prices

Vera has two of the city's best-known roasters. Café Stamba, in the Stamba Hotel at 14 Merab Kostava Street, roasts on a Probat, and Shavi Coffee Roasters, founded in late 2021 on Mikheil Zandukeli Street, roasts light and medium.⁸ In Marjanishvili, Satatsuri sits just outside Fabrika and has become a landmark café.¹⁰ Minimalist, on Zakaria Paliashvili Street, serves only manual brews.⁶

Near Rustaveli Avenue, Yuri Kasradze opened Santino at 15 Atoneli Street in 2021, with a Modbar system and a long international drinks menu. Puri Guliani, a bakery-café near Saarbrücken Square, has an express branch in Vake.⁸

Chains grew alongside. Erti Kava, founded in Mestia in 2017, opened branches in Mestia, Tbilisi and Batumi.¹¹ Costa Coffee had three Tbilisi cafés by early 2026, and Starbucks planned its first, in Vake, for March 2026. The Tbilisi Coffee Festival began in 2023, and its 2025 edition drew about 50 companies and 5,000 visitors.¹

Prices have climbed with the beans. A coffee cost ₾5–8 on average in 2021.⁷ By 2025, a cappuccino in Tbilisi cost around ₾10.³