Tbilisi Coffee Festival in Georgia: dates, meaning and how to experience it

By Mariam Lomidze, GTour desk · Fact-checked against the sources listed · Last checked 25 October 2026 · Editorial policy

What it is

The Tbilisi Coffee Festival (in Georgian, თბილისის ყავის ფესტივალი, Tbilisis q’avis pestivali) is an annual trade and public event held at ExpoGeorgia, the city’s main exhibition grounds. The Georgian word for coffee, q’ava (ყავა), entered the language from Ottoman Turkish kahve, itself derived from Arabic qahwa — a reminder that coffee reached the Caucasus centuries ago as a traded good rather than a local crop. The word pestivali is a direct, twentieth-century loan of the European “festival,” signalling that this is a contemporary cultural event rather than a feast tied to the Georgian Orthodox liturgical calendar.

Unlike Georgia’s saints’ days, harvest feasts, or Easter-season observances, the Coffee Festival has no religious character and is not a public holiday. It is organised by private roasters, importers, and café businesses, and it is attended by Tbilisi residents, hospitality professionals, and increasingly by visitors who plan a weekend in the capital around it. It functions simultaneously as a trade fair — where small Georgian roasteries meet equipment suppliers and distributors — and as a public tasting event, with queues for pour-over bars, barista demonstrations, and judged competitions open to anyone who buys a ticket.

Historical background

• 19th century — Tbilisi, administrative capital of the Russian-ruled Caucasus, develops a cosmopolitan café culture along Golovinsky Prospekt (today’s Rustaveli Avenue), where coffee arrives through long-standing Ottoman and Persian trade networks.
• late 19th–early 20th century — coffeehouses in Tbilisi’s Sololaki and Vera districts become meeting places for writers, merchants, and the city’s mixed Georgian, Armenian, and Persian communities.
• 1921–1991 — during the Soviet period, coffee is imported centrally and served in state-run cafés, while tea, grown domestically in Guria and Adjara, is promoted as the everyday Soviet-Georgian drink.
• 1958 — according to the venue’s own account, the exhibition grounds that later become ExpoGeorgia open in Tbilisi as a Soviet-era showcase for industrial and agricultural achievement, the same site hosting modern trade fairs today.
• 1991 — Georgian independence opens the market to direct private coffee import for the first time since the Soviet period.
• 2000s–2010s — a wave of independent, “third-wave” coffee shops and small local roasteries opens across Tbilisi, part of a broader growth in the city’s restaurant and café scene noted by tourism authorities.
• late 2010s — according to organisers, the Tbilisi Coffee Festival is first held at ExpoGeorgia, bringing roasters, café owners, and equipment importers together under one roof.
• 2020 — like much of the Georgian cultural calendar, the festival is affected by pandemic-era restrictions and scaled back or paused.
• 2026 — the festival returns to its usual late-September slot, held 26–27 September at ExpoGeorgia; the 2027 edition is expected around 25–26 September, pending confirmation by organisers.

Georgia’s relationship with coffee has always been one of exchange rather than cultivation. The country’s mountainous, continental climate suits grapevines, tea bushes, and hazelnuts, not coffee trees, so every bean served in Tbilisi today — as in the nineteenth century — arrives by trade. The Georgian National Tourism Administration lists the capital’s café culture among the features that draw repeat visitors, a culture that layers Ottoman- and Persian-influenced coffeehouse habits onto a much newer, post-Soviet specialty-coffee movement.

The festival itself is a recent addition to that story. It did not grow out of a folk custom or a church calendar but out of the rapid professionalisation of Tbilisi’s hospitality sector after 2000, when young entrepreneurs opened independent cafés around Rustaveli, Vera, and Sololaki and began importing beans, machines, and training directly rather than through Soviet-era state channels. The festival gives that scattered industry a single annual meeting point, timed each year by its private organisers rather than fixed by tradition.

Meaning and traditions

Visitors find rows of booths staffed by Georgian and regional roasters offering tastings, brewing demonstrations ranging from espresso to pour-over and cold brew, and a stage for judged barista and latte-art competitions. Equipment importers display machines and grinders alongside stalls selling beans, filters, and accessories. Cupping sessions — structured group tastings used to evaluate a roast’s flavour — are usually open to the public as well as professionals.

Georgian vocabulary useful at the event includes q’ava (ყავა, coffee), q’avis sakhli (ყავის სახლი, “coffeehouse”), and barista, a direct international loanword. A related home custom worth knowing is q’avაზე მკითხაობა (q’avaze mk’itkhaoba), fortune-telling from the grounds left in a small cup of Turkish-style coffee, a practice shared with neighbouring countries of the Caucasus and the Balkans and still performed informally after a meal in many Georgian households.

Coffee is typically paired at the festival with Georgian sweets such as gozinaki (honey-and-walnut brittle) or churchkhela (strung nuts dipped in grape-must paste), rather than with any dedicated coffee-specific dish, since coffee has no deep culinary tradition of its own in Georgian cuisine. Regionally, Tbilisi’s scene is by far the most developed; Batumi‘s seafront café culture in Adjara has grown alongside its tourism boom, while smaller towns still largely favour instant or stovetop Turkish-style coffee at home.

When it happens

There is no fixed calendar rule: the Tbilisi Coffee Festival is set each year by its private organisers, typically falling on a weekend in late September at ExpoGeorgia. In 2026 it was held on 26–27 September; the 2027 edition is expected on 25–26 September, though this remains to be confirmed closer to the date. It is not a public holiday in Georgia, so government offices, schools, churches, and most businesses operate on their normal schedules; the event affects only the ExpoGeorgia halls and the surrounding access roads for its two days.

Where to experience it

ExpoGeorgia sits on Tsereteli Avenue on Tbilisi’s northern edge, reachable by metro to Sarajishvili station followed by a short walk, by bus, or by taxi. Doors typically open in the late morning and run into the evening on both festival days. Visitors can expect to walk between dozens of roaster and vendor booths, sample small tastings (sometimes free, sometimes for a token fee), watch scheduled competitions from a demonstration stage, and buy bags of locally roasted beans to take home. As a secular trade fair rather than a religious observance, there is no specific dress code or church etiquette required; ordinary festival manners apply — cash in small denominations is useful for sample purchases, and most vendors are used to curious questions from first-time visitors.

Did you know

• Georgia grows no coffee of its own; every bean at the festival, as in Tbilisi’s nineteenth-century coffeehouses, arrives through trade rather than cultivation.
• The Georgian word for coffee, q’ava, traces back through Ottoman Turkish kahve to Arabic qahwa, the same root that gives English “coffee.”
• ExpoGeorgia, the festival’s venue, traces its origins to a Soviet-era exhibition complex built to showcase industrial and agricultural achievement.
• Reading fortunes from the grounds left in a Turkish-style coffee cup is a custom shared across the Caucasus and the Balkans, not unique to Georgia.
• Tbilisi’s historic café culture grew along what is now Rustaveli Avenue, then the Russian imperial Golovinsky Prospekt, at a crossroads of Ottoman, Persian, and European trade.

Practical tips for visitors

Late September in Tbilisi is generally mild, with daytime temperatures around 15–25°C and occasional rain, so a light jacket is sensible. Tickets are usually sold online in advance and at the door, with earlier booking advisable since exact 2027 dates are still to be confirmed by organisers. Comfortable shoes help for a day spent moving between booths, and nothing about the event requires formal dress. GTour arranges a private driver or guide for the day for visitors who prefer not to navigate public transport to ExpoGeorgia.

Combine it with

Many visitors pair a Tbilisi festival weekend with a short trip into Kakheti, Georgia’s wine heartland, or a day in Imereti for its cuisine and cave monasteries. Those extending toward the coast often add Adjara, where Batumi’s own seafront café scene offers a contrasting, subtropical take on Georgia’s growing coffee culture.

Questions travellers ask

Is the Tbilisi Coffee Festival a traditional Georgian holiday?

No. It is a modern trade and public event with no religious or folk origin, unlike feasts fixed by the Georgian Orthodox calendar. It is organised privately and set each year by its organisers rather than by tradition.

Is it a public holiday, and will shops or churches be closed?

It is not a public holiday. Government offices, schools, churches, and ordinary businesses across Georgia remain open as usual; only the ExpoGeorgia venue and nearby access roads are affected during the festival days.

Do I need to buy a ticket in advance?

Tickets are typically available both online beforehand and at the venue entrance, though booking ahead is advisable since exact dates for the following year are usually confirmed only a few months in advance.

Does Georgia grow its own coffee?

No. Georgia’s climate suits grapevines, tea, and hazelnuts rather than coffee trees, so all coffee served at the festival and across the country is imported, continuing a pattern that stretches back to Ottoman- and Persian-era trade.

Is the festival suitable for non-coffee specialists?

Yes. While it serves the professional roasting and café trade, the event is open to the general public, with tastings, demonstrations, and competitions designed to be accessible to casual visitors as well as industry attendees.

How do I get to ExpoGeorgia without a car?

The venue is reachable by metro to Sarajishvili station followed by a short walk, by city bus, or by taxi; traffic around the grounds can be heavier than usual during the festival weekend.

What else is happening in Tbilisi around the same time?

Late September often overlaps with the start of Georgia’s grape harvest season in wine regions such as Kakheti, making it a convenient window to combine a city festival with a countryside wine trip.

Can I buy Georgian-roasted coffee to take home?

Yes. Most roaster booths sell bagged beans for retail purchase, making the festival a practical place to buy coffee produced by small Tbilisi-based roasteries as a souvenir.

Sources

• Georgian National Tourism Administration
• GNTA official site
• Ministry of Culture, Sport and Youth of Georgia
• Tbilisi City Hall
• National Statistics Office of Georgia (Geostat)
• Agenda.ge
• Georgia Today