Ovidio Velez Chavarro

Ovidio Velez is a 2nd generation coffee farmer in the municipality of Oporapa in Huila where he has his farm Las Brisas. He has learned everything about coffee and fell in love with it from his father. Since being a little kid, he remembers helping him and picking cherries, developing the love for this product. His current farm is his parents farm which he inherited and whose name, Las Brisas, stemmed out according to him because of the good view and climate. Here, he lives with his wife Diabeiva Molina and his sons, and all of them are involved in the production of coffee, helping in all the steps of the way. In 2017, Ovidio switched his focus towards looking out for high quality coffee and during that year, he decided to plant Pink Bourbon as he had heard it achieved better prices and higher quality. From that year onwards, he has had improved his farming management and also, lower the usage of chemical pesticides and fungicides, which according to him has improved the quality and makes the final product healthier for humans. During this time, he started sending some of his Pink Bourbon to roast and became the coffee he consumes on a daily basis at his home. Ovidios current goal is to keep improving the quality of his coffee and stop completely the usage of chemical pesticides and fungicides as he believes they’re harmful. On another aspect, he has ready seedlings on his nursery of Bourbon Aji to plant during 2023.

Ovidio Velez starts the process of his coffee with a good cherry picking. If it is the Castillo variety, he will pulp it at his wet mill the same they it’s picked but if it is a Pink Bourbon, he will live 24 hours for an in-cherry fermentation and then pulp. Afterwards, the Pink Bourbon is left to ferment from 24 to 28 days while the Castillo for 36 hours. Then, they are washed to clean the beans and take out any defects. Subsequently, the coffee is taken to the drying infrastructure, covered patios, where it takes from 10 to 15 days to dry properly.