Key takeaways

Galani Coffee grew from an unpacked 1985 Probat roaster into a five-café brand across Addis Ababa. It took the overall win at the 2026 Global Coffee Awards Africa edition.
Founder Heleanna Georgalis named the roastery after a river in the Amaro region, blending her Ethiopian and Greek heritage into one word.
Ethiopian law restricts roasters from selling traceable micro lots domestically, so Galani Coffee can only serve coffee approved for the local market. It runs SCA-certified training courses in Addis Ababa to widen access in another way.

Most coffee origin stories start with a plan. Heleanna Georgalis’s started with a roaster her father never used.

Founder of Galani Coffee in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Heleanna built a five-café brand from a single Probat that had sat untouched since 1985. She turned it into a platform for showing Ethiopians the specialty coffee she felt was missing from their own birthplace.

Ten years and countless mistakes later, that platform has earned Galani Coffee the title of Africa’s top roaster at the Global Coffee Awards. We spoke with Heleanna about the roastery’s origins, its award-winning coffee, and what she wants for its future. Read on for her insights.

From an unused roaster to a coffee education mission

Galani Coffee began almost by accident. Heleanna found a Probat roaster her father had bought in 1985 but never used. She brought it to Addis Ababa with no formal background in retail, hospitality, or coffee roasting. Her early motivation was less about business and more about access. She wanted Ethiopians to experience the same quality of coffee that specialty markets abroad had already embraced. Ethiopia is, after all, the origin of the crop and its ceremonial traditions.

Heleanna is candid about the learning curve that followed. “I had no idea about retail, no idea about cooking, recipes, menus, nothing. So we made countless mistakes. I cannot even begin to tell you the mistakes that we made. But it was a learning curve, and it was definitely worth it, because this part is the fun part.”

That willingness to learn in public, rather than wait for the perfect setup, became the foundation the roastery would build on for the next decade. Perfect Daily Grind has argued that roasters should look to emerging specialty markets for inspiration, and that local brands often outperform chains in coffee-producing countries.

A name that ties a Greek word to an Ethiopian river

Choosing a name for the roastery took its own unexpected turn. While driving through Amaro, a lesser-known Ethiopian coffee region, Heleanna asked her driver the name of a river running alongside the road. He told her it was called Galan. When she tried to register the coffee shop under that name, Ethiopian authorities rejected it because Galan is an official term in the Oromifa language.

Heleanna explained how she adapted it. “I thought, let me rephrase it a little bit, or paraphrase it, and make it Galani. In Greek, Galani actually means blue. So I figured that would be perfect. It will combine my Ethiopian origins with my Greek origins.”

The river itself eventually feeds into Lake Arba Minch, a name that translates to “forty springs”. That reinforces the layered symbolism behind a name Heleanna hopes will one day carry beyond Ethiopia’s borders. MTPak Coffee’s guide to naming coffees covers how much a name carries, and imagery does similar work on the bag. Perfect Daily Grind’s guide to Ethiopian coffee maps the regions behind those names.

Loyal, hardworking and quick to kick: the donkey on the label

Galani Coffee’s logo, a donkey, has nothing literal to do with the brand name, but everything to do with family. Heleanna’s father collected antique donkey figurines for years, an unusual hobby he treated half seriously and half as a running joke about wanting a Guinness World Record.

Heleanna described what the animal meant to him. “A donkey is a very loyal and kind animal, and at the same time very hardworking, but then it gives a kick when it gets really stubborn. He used to say, ‘It’s like me. I am honest and hardworking, but when you push me too much, I will kick you.'”

Adopting the donkey as Galani’s symbol let Heleanna carry her father’s memory into the brand while building something entirely her own. That kind of personal mark is what packaging design tips and imagery in packaging both point towards, and Palate Coffee Roastery took a comparable route.

Serving coffee at its birthplace comes with real limits

Ethiopia holds a distinction few coffee-producing countries share. It consumes roughly half of the coffee it grows, a domestic consumption rate driven by the country’s coffee ceremony culture rather than caffeine habits alone. Heleanna sees this as an opportunity to elevate how Ethiopians experience their own coffee, not just export it.

That mission runs into a legal wall, however. Ethiopian regulation currently prevents roasters from selling traceable micro lots on the domestic market, reserving that transparency for export buyers instead. Traceability usually travels on the label, and what a roaster can put on that label shapes what a customer learns.

Heleanna described the frustration plainly. “I cannot say in my coffee shop, ‘This coffee is a micro lot from Gerache, from this farmer.’ I would have loved to, and I really hope that the government finds a way to allow us to do that.”

Even within those constraints, Heleanna positions Galani Coffee as a showcase for what origin-grown coffee can be. She treats it with the same care as any specialty roastery abroad, which is also how Perfect Daily Grind frames Ethiopia’s regional distinctions.

Ten years, five cafés, and Africa’s top roaster title

Galani Coffee now operates five locations across Addis Ababa, a scale Heleanna says took roughly six years to justify economically after the first shop opened. Reaching that point meant treating hospitality as seriously as sourcing, since running a café, in her view, means taking care of people as much as preparing coffee.

That patience paid off internationally in 2026. Galani Coffee took the overall win at the Global Coffee Awards Africa edition, with its washed Limu heirloom coffee scoring highest in the Espresso Single Origin category.

Alongside café growth, Galani Coffee also runs SCA-certified training courses at its Jackross location, covering everything from roasting fundamentals to barista skills. Heleanna says the reaction from students keeps her motivated to expand the programme further, even though scheduling time for it remains a challenge. Growth of that kind eventually reaches wholesale and distribution, where packaging decisions change again, and buzzwords on the bag start to matter more.

A vision beyond Africa

Looking ahead, Heleanna wants Galani Coffee judged on the same terms as roasters anywhere else in the world, not measured against a regional curve. MTPak Coffee’s guides to Ethiopian Yirgacheffe and single origin coffee cover the ground those cafés introduce to new drinkers.

Galani Coffee’s rise from an untouched roaster to Africa’s top-scoring specialty brand shows how far a single decision to share good coffee locally can travel. At MTPak Coffee, we help growing roasters carry that kind of story onto the shelf. Our custom coffee bag packaging and low minimum order quantities are built for brands scaling city by city.

Got a story to tell? Talk to the MTPak Coffee team.

FAQs

What award did Galani Coffee win in 2026?
Galani Coffee won the overall title at the 2026 Global Coffee Awards Africa edition. Its washed Limu heirloom coffee scored highest in the Espresso Single Origin category among entrants from across the continent.

Who founded Galani Coffee, and where is it based?
Heleanna Georgalis founded Galani Coffee in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, starting with an unused Probat roaster her father had bought in 1985. The brand now operates five cafés across the city.

Why is the name Galani significant?
Galani blends an Ethiopian river name, Galan, with the Greek word for blue, reflecting Heleanna’s dual heritage. The river feeds into Lake Arba Minch, whose name translates to forty springs.