The roaster’s single-origin beans are imported from the owner’s family farm in Peru

ATASCADERO — On Thursday, Aug. 18, new coffee shop Belnano Coffee celebrated its grand opening in the Smart & Final shopping center. The Atascadero Chamber of Commerce, members of the City Council, including Mayor Heather Moreno, and more community members were there to welcome the new coffee shop to the chamber and Atascadero with a ribbon cutting.

Carmen Garria and her husband, Juan Nano, who have been local to the North County for the last 27 years, are originally from Peru. And in 2007, the family purchased a coffee farm situated in Villa Rica, Peru. 

“My oldest son, who lives in Los Angeles right now, he sees this farm and says, ‘Dad, you know, let’s buy this farm and raise coffee.’ So we buy our land,” said Juan.

Continually surrounded by the coffee business since birth, Juan, whose parents and grandparents both grew coffee, was ready to dive in.

“Like two generations before me, they have the [coffee] plantations,” stated Juan.

Belnano, whose name is a mixture of the Spanish word “bello/bella,” meaning beautiful, and the family’s last name Nano, brings the flavor of Peru to Atascadero by only serving coffee made from plants off their property in Villa Rica.

“It is 30 acres. We keep 10 acres virgin,” said Carmen of their land in Peru. “We don’t want to touch that because, ecological. I want to keep the environment, so that is so nice to go hike there. We do it all the time. It’s so relaxing.”

The family’s farm is at the entrance of the jungle and right in the middle of the Andes and the Amazon, making it the perfect place to grow coffee plants.

“[It’s a] tropical area; that is why the coffee is good because, heat and cold, heat and rain, and that’s what it is,” added Carmen.

Balnano’s coffee follows the “wet process.” Back in Peru, the land’s red coffee cherries are handpicked by locals between April and July and transported to their processing plant in large sacks. And because Belnano Coffee is a single-origin coffee shop, every sip of coffee you enjoy when you visit originated at Carmen and Juan’s 30 acres.

“When we roast, because it comes single origin, we have different types of roasting to get the best body, the flavor, the aroma for coffee,” Carmen said. “We have a recipe for the espresso machine, we have a recipe for the brew coffee, we have a recipe for the cold coffee.” 

Currently, Belnano is working on getting its next batch of coffee beans imported from Peru. The beans will make their journey from the port in Peru and travel all the way to Los Angeles before being transported up north to be stored until they are needed at the coffee shop.

“Right now, we’re ready to bring the next batch [of coffee beans] here. So very exciting. We’re already communicating with Peru to bring all the coffee, getting all the paperwork ready,” said Carmen. “We have to make sure everything is right.”

Carmen also said that it took six months to get all the coffee beans from Peru to Atascadero.

“Since it was the first time bringing it [the coffee] here, it was very challenging,” Carmen continued. “But we just follow the process, get the FDA, get the … there is a lot of documentation involved.”

Belnano Coffee not only offers single-origin coffee straight from Peru, but they also provide their guests with breakfast, lunch, and dinner options. And the coffee shop is also open late to the public, with hours from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m.

“We are very proud of what we do. There is a lot to learn. We want to continue doing this,” stated Carmen.