Ovidio Garcia Monterroso

Ovidio Garcia Monterroso has been growing coffee for 30 years, since he started working with his father at an early age. For the last 6 years, he has been focusing on specialty coffee, which has allowed him to improve his income, farming techniques and invest more time in the farm, which has eamed him awards and more recognition for his coffee. His farm La Nueva, which means a new beginning, is in the beautiful mountains of Nueva Santa Rosa and today produces some of the best coffee in the region.

When Ovidio was choosing the name for his farm, he originally wanted to call it Nueva Montaña, but a friend of his had already chosen that name, so he decided on La Nueva. Today, he calls it La Nueva Honey because in 2022 all the coffee was 100% processed as honey and natural. This way, Ovidio was able to reduce the amount of water used in processing the coffee, since water resources are scarce in the region, and it is a challenge for most farmers to process washed coffee.

For processing, he says, the coffee fruits go directly to the raised beds for drying after harvesting or pulping. Natural coffee dries on average for 30 days, and honey processed coffees for 15 days. Ovidio pays close attention to the moisture content of the parchment and the green coffee, checking it with a portable moisture meter he bought. Currently, 50% of the coffee grown is Catuai, 25% Caturra, 10% Pache, 5% Catimor, and 5% Gesha.

In addition, Ovidio works with his two sons, who are incredibly involved in the farm throughout the year: Ovidio takes care of the drying, and his sons of all other agricultural activities. In recent years, some of the changes they have made on the farm have focused on better fertilization schedules, best pricking practices – finding the best ripening level for each variety and keeping the farm professionally managed overall.

This is the firts year he has worked with Caravela,and he says, “I like Caravelas’s model of prompt payments and teamwork”, and Ovidio adds, “I hope customers continue to consume my coffee because it is one of the best coffees from Guatemala. We dedicate a lot of time and effort to producing these coffees so that customers and buyers can see and taste fisthand the quality of our coffee”.