Latina & Latino-Owned Coffee Roasters in the US (2026)

Nineteen independent operators verified, organized by heritage origin — many running family-farm-to-cafe operations that connect Latin American coffee land to American roasteries.

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Coffee is a Latin American story before it is anything else. Brazil, Colombia, Honduras, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Mexico, El Salvador, and Nicaragua produce roughly half the world's specialty coffee between them — and that has been true, with regional shifts, since the 1800s. The people growing it, picking it, and processing it have been Latino for generations.

The roasters in this collection bring that heritage back to the US side of the supply chain. Many are running operations where the founder's family still owns the farm in Colombia, Brazil, Nicaragua, or Costa Rica that supplies the green coffee. Others are second, third, or fourth-generation Latinos who grew up in coffee-growing households and built their own roasting brands here. A few are first-gen immigrants who got into specialty coffee in the US and have built careers from the cup side rather than the farm side.

We've verified 19 active Latina and Latino-owned independent roasters in our directory as of May 2026 — meaning they're roasting their own beans in-house, the business is currently operating, and the founders are publicly identified as Latino, Latina, Latinx, or Hispanic. The actual nationwide count is meaningfully higher; we're conservative about confirmation and only include roasters where the ownership signal is clear. What follows is organized by heritage origin where the founder's family ties to a specific country are well-documented, and by region where the lineage is broader or pan-Latino.

Colombian heritage

Colombia is the second-largest coffee producer in the world and has been since the 1980s. Several US roasters in this list are second- or fourth-generation Colombian families running operations that source directly from the land their relatives still farm.

Cafetal Coffee — Tempe, AZ

Cafetal is run by a fourth-generation Colombian coffee-farming family. The Tempe operation, near ASU, sources directly from the family farm in Colombia rather than through importers, which is rare for a small roaster — vertical access usually requires either a long importer relationship or a direct family connection. Cafetal has the family connection. The result is a tight, single-origin-leaning menu where the green-coffee provenance is genuine rather than marketing. Profile on Roast Local.

Villa Myriam Coffee — Albuquerque, NM

Brothers Juan and David, Colombian-American, run Villa Myriam in Albuquerque. The family hacienda is in Piendamó, in the Cauca region of Colombia — one of the country's most respected specialty-coffee zones. The roasting operation in New Mexico is the US-side endpoint of a family business that grows the coffee. New Mexico has very few roasters of any kind sourcing this way; Villa Myriam is one of the only options in the state for direct-from-family-farm Colombian. Profile on Roast Local.

Little Waves Coffee Roasters — Chapel Hill, NC

Little Waves is the roasting arm of the Cocoa Cinnamon family of cafes in the Triangle, founded by Areli Barrera de Grodski and Leon Grodski de Barrera. Areli is Mexican-Colombian and the operation has been explicit about its Latina co-ownership since the start. Roast Magazine named Little Waves Micro Roaster of the Year in 2024 — one of the highest single recognitions a small US roaster can receive — and the company has built a sourcing program that genuinely engages with origin rather than treating it as decoration. The roastery moved from Durham to Chapel Hill but the cafe footprint and brand remain anchored in Durham's Cocoa Cinnamon locations. They ship nationally. Profile on Roast Local.

Tracer Coffee — Charleston, SC

Tracer was launched in 2024 by Gina Cordoba in Charleston with co-founder Eduardo Calle, who is from Antioquia in Colombia. Cordoba and Calle source through their Colombian connections, with Antioquia coffee a regular feature of the menu. As one of the newer operations on this list, Tracer is still building out wholesale and online presence, but the green-coffee side is strong from day one. Profile on Roast Local.

Brazilian heritage

Brazil produces roughly a third of the world's coffee. A handful of US roasters in this collection have direct family ties to Brazilian coffee farms.

Boarding Pass Coffee — Alpharetta, GA

Boarding Pass is a family-owned roaster supplied by Fazenda Santana, a second-generation family coffee farm in Brazil. The Alpharetta roastery sells coffee that traces directly to the family's farm — meaning every bag has provenance most roasters can only describe in the abstract. The "boarding pass" name plays on the journey from origin farm to American cup. They ship nationally from north of Atlanta. Profile on Roast Local.

Hypergoat Coffee Roasters — Alexandria, VA

Rodrigo and Deborah Joos are a Brazilian husband-and-wife team who launched Hypergoat in 2023, working out of Alexandria with a 7-kilogram Loring Nighthawk roaster. Loring machines are a serious commitment — the Nighthawk is a top-tier production roaster, and most operations of Hypergoat's age use something smaller and cheaper. The Joos family has paired the equipment with Brazilian sourcing relationships and a focus on Brazil-origin offerings. They ship nationally. Profile on Roast Local.

Salvadoran, Costa Rican, and Central American heritage

Topeca Coffee — Tulsa, OK

Topeca is one of the older operations on this list — Margarita and John Gaberino founded it in Tulsa in 2001. The family has multi-generational ties to coffee farming in El Salvador, including their own coffee estate, and Topeca has been roasting Salvadoran-origin coffee from the family land for over twenty years. That kind of vertical longevity in the US specialty market is unusual; most farm-to-roastery operations either remain small or get acquired. Topeca has scaled and stayed independent. They ship nationally. Profile on Roast Local.

Capulin Coffee — Tucson, AZ

Daniel Fourwinds founded Capulin around single-farm Mexican Arabica — coffee grown on one farm in Mexico, processed and shipped as a tight single-origin program rather than blended. That focus is rare in the US specialty market; most roasters source widely and blend. Capulin's commitment to single-farm Mexican coffee is a genuine specialty position. The Tucson operation is small but the sourcing story is real. Profile on Roast Local.

El Recreo Estate / Recreo Coffee — West Roxbury, MA

Recreo Coffee is a Latino-owned operation tied to Finca El Recreo, a Nicaraguan estate the family has run since 1968. The Boston-area roastery in West Roxbury is the US arm of a multi-generational Nicaraguan coffee-growing business. They roast Nicaraguan coffee from the family farm and ship it nationally — the kind of vertical integration most "direct trade" claims gesture at without actually achieving. Profile on Roast Local.

Mexican heritage

Dahlia Coffee Co. — Cleveland, OH

Natalia Alcazar founded Dahlia in Cleveland in 2022 as a Latina, women-owned roastery focused on Mexican-origin coffee. Mexico is one of the most under-represented origins in US specialty roasting relative to its production volume — partly because the country's coffee sector has been hit hard by leaf rust and price compression. Dahlia is part of a small wave of Latina founders pushing Mexican coffee into US specialty channels with intent. They ship nationally. Profile on Roast Local.

Cuban and Puerto Rican heritage

Bichota Coffee — Minneapolis, MN

C. Terrence Anderson founded Bichota in Minneapolis. He's Puerto Rican, and the roastery is located at George Floyd Square — a deliberate placement, not a coincidence. Bichota's brand and business mission are tied to the neighborhood, and the roasting work is one piece of a broader community-rooted operation. They ship nationally. Profile on Roast Local.

Multi-origin and pan-Latino operations

The roasters below have Latino ownership but the family-origin tie is either broader, pan-Latino, or built around the founder's career path rather than a single country.

Café Corazón — Kansas City, MO

Café Corazón was founded by the familia Miel Castagna-Herrera, Curtis Herrera, and Dulcinea Herrera — three co-founders who describe the operation as Kansas City's first Latin and Indigenous coffee house and roastery. Miel is Argentine; Curtis is Mescalero Apache and Méxican; the brand's identity is explicitly pan-Latino and pan-Indigenous rather than tied to a single national origin. The menu spans Latinx and Indigenous espresso drinks and traditional foods, and the cafe is the premier Midwest source for ceremonial Yerba Mate in its traditional form. Café Corazón has been named "Kansas City's Most Equality-Based Business" and one of "Top 10 Best Businesses in the city for 2025." Three KC locations (Westport, Brookside, Crossroads) and a national shipping program. They also appear in our Indigenous-owned collection on Curtis Herrera's Mescalero Apache lineage. Profile on Roast Local.

Beanealogy — Atlanta, GA

Steve Franklin runs Beanealogy in Atlanta, with sourcing rooted in his family's coffee farm in Nicaragua and a four-generation heritage going back to the 1880s. The "beanealogy" name plays on the genealogy of the bean itself — Franklin treats the family lineage and the coffee lineage as the same story. The operation is small but the sourcing is direct and the Nicaragua family-farm connection is real. Profile on Roast Local.

J Martinez & Co — Atlanta, GA

John A. Martinez is a Jamaica native descended from a Spanish coffee-trading family that arrived in Jamaica in 1830. The Atlanta-based operation has been working primarily in high-end Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee and a tight selection of estate-grade origins for decades. The four-generation lineage is unusual in the US specialty market; most roasters' founders are first-generation in coffee. Martinez is operating a fourth-generation business. Profile on Roast Local.

Volcanica Coffee Co. — Suwanee, GA

Maurice Contreras founded Volcanica with his family in Suwanee, north of Atlanta. The family is Costa Rican by heritage. Volcanica has scaled into one of the larger Latino-owned online retailers in US specialty — an Inc. 5000 honoree — selling a wide range of single-origin coffees online with a focus on volcanic-region origins (the "Volcanica" name). They ship nationally and have built a meaningful direct-to-consumer footprint. Profile on Roast Local.

Estas Manos Coffee Roasters — Las Cruces, NM

Nicholas Gonzales and Leandra Gamboa founded Estas Manos in Las Cruces in 2018. Gamboa is a Las Cruces native and NMSU graduate. The name — "Estas Manos," "these hands" — points to the labor side of coffee production. Estas Manos is one of two Latino-owned roasters in New Mexico in our directory and the only one in the southern part of the state. Profile on Roast Local.

A Cup Of Common Wealth — Lexington, KY

Salvador "Sal" Sanchez founded A Cup Of Common Wealth in Lexington in July 2013. The roastery has grown into a Lexington-anchored operation with steady local distribution and a cafe presence. Kentucky has a small specialty coffee scene relative to its population, and Common Wealth has been part of building it out from the inside for over a decade. Profile on Roast Local.

Rosalind Coffee TX — Garland, TX

Rosalind is a Latino-owned operation in Garland, north of Dallas. The team took over the former Generator Coffee facility and rebuilt it as Rosalind, with their own roasting program and brand. Garland has a meaningful Latino population and Rosalind is one of the few specialty roasters in the Dallas metro that's both Latino-owned and explicitly community-anchored. They ship nationally. Profile on Roast Local.

Dark Matter Coffee — Chicago, IL

Jesse Diaz founded Dark Matter in Chicago in 2007 and has scaled it into one of the larger Latino-owned roasters in the country. Dark Matter runs a cooperative model with employees, multiple Chicago cafes, and a wide wholesale footprint. The branding is loud, the music-and-art collaborations are constant, and the roasting program has grown without losing the original neighborhood character. They ship nationally. Profile on Roast Local.

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The thread running through all 19 of these operations is that the people roasting the coffee have a relationship to coffee that pre-dates their American roastery. Sometimes the relationship is a literal family farm — Recreo, Cafetal, Villa Myriam, Boarding Pass, Topeca, Volcanica, Beanealogy, J Martinez. Sometimes it's a heritage tie that informs sourcing without a specific farm — Bichota, Dahlia, Capulin, Hypergoat. Sometimes it's a career arc that started in coffee work and built out from there — Common Wealth, Dark Matter, Rosalind. The category isn't a single thing.

What it is, consistently, is direct knowledge of the supply side. These are roasters where the founder grew up around coffee, or whose family still owns the farm, or whose first job was on the green-coffee side. That kind of knowledge is rare in US specialty roasting and worth seeking out. If you're trying to drink Colombian coffee from someone whose family grew it, or Salvadoran coffee from someone whose grandparents farmed it, or Mexican coffee from a roaster who treats Mexico as the origin it deserves to be — this is the list.

Browse all 19 on our interactive map, or read about the broader US independent roasting landscape in our other editorial collections.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many Latina and Latino-owned coffee roasters are in the US?

We've verified 19 active Latina and Latino-owned independent roasters in our directory as of May 2026, spanning Arizona, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas, and Virginia. The actual nationwide count is meaningfully higher — Latino ownership data is rarely surfaced publicly and we only include operators where the signal is clear. This list reflects only roasters we've individually confirmed are active and roasting their own beans in-house.

Which of these roasters source from family-owned farms?

At least eight of the 19 source directly from family-owned coffee farms in Latin America. El Recreo / Recreo Coffee runs a 1968-founded Nicaraguan estate. Cafetal Coffee sources from a fourth-generation Colombian family farm. Villa Myriam sources from the family hacienda in Piendamó, Colombia. Boarding Pass Coffee sources from Fazenda Santana, a second-generation Brazilian family farm. Topeca Coffee owns a coffee estate in El Salvador. Volcanica is family-built around Costa Rican volcanic-region sourcing. Beanealogy sources from a four-generation Nicaraguan family farm. J Martinez & Co descends from an 1830 Spanish-Jamaican coffee-trading family.

Do these Latino-owned roasters ship nationwide?

Most of them — yes. As of May 2026, 13 of the 19 roasters in this guide ship nationwide directly from their websites: Boarding Pass Coffee, Volcanica Coffee, Dark Matter Coffee, El Recreo / Recreo Coffee, Bichota Coffee, Café Corazón, Little Waves Coffee Roasters, Dahlia Coffee Co., Topeca Coffee, Hypergoat Coffee Roasters, Rosalind Coffee TX, plus Beanealogy and Capulin (regionally) and others on request. The remaining roasters sell primarily through their cafes and local accounts.

Which Latino-owned roasters focus on Mexican coffee specifically?

Two roasters in this collection have an explicit Mexican-origin focus. Capulin Coffee in Tucson is built around single-farm Mexican Arabica — coffee grown on a single farm in Mexico, sourced and roasted as a tight single-origin program. Dahlia Coffee Co. in Cleveland, founded by Natalia Alcazar in 2022, is a Latina-owned roastery specifically focused on Mexican-origin coffee. Mexico is under-represented in US specialty relative to its production volume, and both of these operators are pushing it into wider visibility.

What's a good starting roaster from this list?

If you want a single recommendation: Little Waves Coffee Roasters in the Triangle. They were named Roast Magazine's Micro Roaster of the Year in 2024 — one of the highest single honors a small US roaster can receive — and Areli Barrera de Grodski's sourcing program is genuinely engaged with origin rather than performative. For something different: El Recreo / Recreo Coffee in Boston, where every bag traces to a family-owned Nicaraguan estate that's been operating since 1968. For volume and range: Volcanica Coffee out of Suwanee, Georgia, which has scaled into one of the larger Latino-owned online retailers in the country with single-origin offerings from across Latin America. All three ship nationally.