Our founder, Zara, was born in Lima, Peru and inherited a passion for coffee from her mother's side.

She is a trained and skilled barista who worked for Blue Bottle Coffee during her college years in the busy San Francisco Ferry Building, and Financial District locations in San Francisco for years. She has a deep understanding of different coffee beans from all corners of the world including their origins, roasting levels, and flavor profiles.

Years later she crossed "the pond" to do grad school in Europe, then she returned to home in Peru, and the pandemic hit and she got stuck there for 10 months. It was during that time when she crossed paths with Carmen Carrasco, a forestry Engineer, entrepreneur and Chair of a Women Coffee Farmer's Cooperative made up of 41 women from the rural area of Jaen, Cajamarca in the Andes of Northern Peru, which has been historically one of the best coffee areas of South America and now the world.

She always felt that Peruvian mainstream society looked down on her beautiful roots: African descendent Peruvian and Native South American, that she is fiercely proud of. Her father, originally from Cajamarca, Peru, moved to Lima, where she was born. She always felt a sense of disconnect from her Northern roots. So, in a sense, she on a journey of reclaiming her Native South American heritage, which led her to her ancestral lands of Cajamarca. This is where she had the incredible fortune to meet with women coffee farmers. The Kaphiy Roasters project was born with a strong vision and driven by passion for coffee to pay tribute and homage to all the hard working women from her life.