The story of Pisgah Coffee Roasters began over a century ago and almost 4,000 miles away. In the late 1800's Jotham Lipsi's ancestors made their way from Italy to Brazil and found work on a coffee plantation.

A generation later, Jotham's father, an agronomist, bought a plantation in Minas Gerais, a southern state of Brazil renowned for its coffee production. Jotham spent his childhood soaking up the lessons of coffee growing during time spent on the plantation, which consisted of 400 acres and over 300,000 coffee trees.

Brevard College brought Jotham to western North Carolina in 2004. Like most visitors, he fell in love with the area. In 2010, Jotham and his father established a coffee business supplying single-origin coffee from the Cerrado region of Brazil to commercial clients.