Colombia's new Juan Valdez is an authentic coffee grower

The Associated Press

BOGOTA, Colombia -- After a two-year search among more than 300,000 candidates nationwide, Colombia unveiled the new Juan Valdez, the country's iconic coffee ambassador to the world.

His real name is Carlos Castaneda.

Like his two predecessors, the 39-year-old sports the leather bag, bushy mustache and straw hat typical of rural Colombia where the world-famous arabica coffee is grown.

But unlike those other Valdezes -- who were played by a Cuban-born actor and a silk-screen artisan -- Castaneda knows a thing or two about growing coffee. The oldest of 10 children born on a coffee farm, he picked his first bean at age 6.

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