Caffeto Specialty Coffee Brings Family Farm from Caldas to North Carolina
Inside a 3,000-square-foot space at Shops on the Green in Cornelius, North Carolina, two Colombian sisters are reshaping what farm-to-cup can look like. Caffeto Specialty Coffee, which opened its first brick-and-mortar location this month, sources exclusively from a family farm in Colombia’s Caldas department—with beans roasted in Manizales and shipped to Charlotte every two weeks.
Sisters Valentina and Maria Castellanos were born in Manizales, the capital of Caldas and one of Colombia’s historic coffee cities. Their parents recently purchased a farm in nearby Neira, about 30 minutes away and climbing to roughly 1,800 metres above sea level. That elevation, combined with Caldas’s volcanic soils and consistent rainfall, produces coffees the sisters describe as having “panela-like sweetness with chocolatey and nutty notes.”
From Coffee Truck to Lake Norman
The Castellanos sisters launched Caffeto as a mobile operation in late 2024, serving Charlotte’s NoDa neighbourhood from a coffee truck. The concept proved popular enough that they began searching for a permanent location, eventually partnering with Amy Jolly and her daughter Aubrey, who run The Outpost, an outdoor-lifestyle gift shop.
The two businesses now share an open-concept retail space at 20910 Torrence Chapel Road, next to Ferrucci’s Old Tyme Italian Market. Inside, natural wood floors and furniture sit beneath woven rattan pendant lights. A green couch, leafy plants, and corrugated bar paneling create what the sisters call a “tropical vibe”—a nod to their Colombian roots without veering into kitsch.
“What brought us together was a sense of community,” Valentina told Cornelius Today. “We wanted to join with Amy and help bring that sense of community here to Lake Norman.”
The Menu: Colombian Traditions, Specialty Execution
While the espresso and pour-overs star family-grown beans, the food menu grounds the cafe in Colombian tradition. Pandebono—cheese bread made with cassava flour—sits alongside arepas and dedo de queso (cheese fingers). The pastry case also holds banana bread and rotating baked goods.
The signature drink is the Pily Latte, named after the sisters’ grandmother. It’s a dessert-forward creation finished with whipped cream cheese foam, blurring the line between coffee and comfort food. Ceremonial-grade matcha rounds out the non-coffee offerings.
A Wholesale Ambition
The Castellanos family has larger plans for their supply chain. They’re currently pursuing FDA approval to import green coffee beans, which would allow them to distribute unroasted lots to small specialty coffee businesses at accessible pricing. If approved, it would transform Caffeto from a single cafe into an importer—a significant step that could connect other North Carolina roasters directly to Caldas.
Why This Matters
The direct trade model isn’t new, but the Castellanos sisters are part of a growing wave of first-generation Colombian-Americans building businesses around family land. Rather than working through importers and brokers, they control sourcing, roasting, and retail—compressing the supply chain into a family affair.
For Lake Norman coffee drinkers, this means every Caffeto espresso connects to a specific farm, elevation, and family. The beans didn’t pass through anonymous warehouses or change hands half a dozen times. They went from Caldas to Manizales to Cornelius, with sisters on both ends of the journey.
Caffeto Specialty Coffee is located at 20910 Torrence Chapel Road in Cornelius, inside The Outpost at Lake Norman.