Familia Imbachi

San Agustin, a municipality where once a pre-Colombian civilization thrived in the mountains where the Magdalena River originates, is the home of the Imbachi family. Before becoming a coffee producer, Carlos Imbachi worked as a treasure hunter, searching for artifacts left by the indigenous communities of San Agustin, and selling them to collectors. With the proceeds from his endeavors, he built a house in the vereda of La Argentina for his family. It was there that he began cultivating coffee and other farm products. 

Initially, Carlos would pick the coffee cherries, pulp them, wash them, and sell them while still wet. However, coffee farming wasn’t profitable for him at the time. The income he received from selling his coffee only covered the wages of his workers, leaving nothing for himself. As the years went by, he started drying his coffee on the farm, but it wasn’t until around 2008 when he encountered Caravela that he began to prioritize quality. 

When the Caravela team visited his farm, Carlos Imbachi’s perspective on coffee started to change. He realized that coffee could be profitable, but it required him to improve his harvesting and post-harvest practices. Through years of hard work, process improvements, and experimentation, Carlos has become an exceptional specialty coffee producer. He discovered that by partnering with Caravela and focusing on producing higher quality coffee, he could increase his income. 

Carlos resides with his wife and their two youngest sons. Their eldest daughter, Sonia, is married and lives near her father’s farm, managing her own coffee plantation and carrying on Carlos’s legacy. Didier, Carlos’s eldest son, chose a path in coffee cupping and currently serves as the Quality Assurance Coordinator at Caravela. In 2009, Carlos’s coffee was awarded Coffee of the Year by the SCAA (Specialty Coffee Association of America).