Konstantina Kochrona

Konstantina Kochrona is an instructor in the coffee and bartending training programs at Bar Academy in Athens. A graduate of all levels of the school’s education, she continues to expand her knowledge and holds WSET Level 1 & 2 certifications in wines and spirits. She is an active member of the Specialty Coffee Association (SCA), engaging continuously in specialized seminars. She believes Athens is an ideal place to discover the art of coffee, while Barcelona represents for her a reference point for mixology and the energy of bars. There, she attended a bartending program, trained at an alternative education center with an emphasis on fermentation, and completed internships at Alvarez and Caporale.

Teaching entered her life when she won a full scholarship to attend an instructors’ school in Mallorca, confirming her calling toward education. She studied Sociology with a specialization in Criminology, and, as she says, sees herself as a “detective of cultures” within societies and their communities. She considers cafés the best school—a space of continual learning and cultural interaction. She loves popular oral stories, those never written down and without a specific place or time; she tells these stories through her cocktails, with imagination and emotional connection.

She describes herself as a “season child,” now in her ninth season in Santorini. She has worked in various roles and locations—from hotels in Rhodes, cocktail bars in Paros and Tinos, a luxury cocktail bar at W Costa Navarino, to bartending instructor in Kos. In winter, she relentlessly continues her coffee education, having worked in neighborhood cafés, specialty coffee shops, and major companies in the coffee industry. She believes that in every foodservice venue there is something magical to discover—and if it doesn’t exist, it’s worth creating.