Teresa de Jesus Ospina

Teresa de Jesús Ospina Rodriguez is originally from Antioquia, a department that lies within the traditional coffee axis of Colombia and one of the largest coffee producing departments in the country. She has been involved with coffee since she was eight years old, and remembers watching her father working on the farm and teaching her everything she knows about coffee today. Forty years ago, Teresa de Jesus and her husband moved to Palestina, Huila and purchased a piece of land to start their own coffee business. Not only did they began producing their coffee but started a family. Coffee has played an important role in Teresa’s life as it has allowed her to offer her children a sustainable future after her husband sadly passed away.

Teresa in the past was characterized as being the fastest picker which she loved and did it very well. Her son, Linarco, has been the most involved with the coffee business of the family. As he grew older and after his father died, he became more involved with his mother’s farm, helping and learning about producing high quality coffee.Today, with the help of her son, Linarco, Teresa is proud that her coffee is travelling abroad and reaching places that she never imagined. She is very thankful to Caravela and to Linarco for all the advice and assistance that she has received to improve what she does every day. Year after year, Teresa and Linarco have worked on improving the quality of their coffee, because they know that if they improve, the better the recognition they receive. The success for the Rodriguez Family, has been their attitude, their passion and commitment to produce amazing coffee.

In recent years, Teresa decided to have a new variety, Pink Bourbon of which she planted 3,200 trees in 2018. She decided to have as it adapts well to the agroclimatic conditions of the region, has a good cup quality, good production and resistant to plagues. Teresa has also been delving into producing natural coffees. The process starts with a good picking of the ripest cherries which that same day are placed inside plastic containers, airtight sealed, and left to have an in-cherry fermentation of approximately 4 days depending on the climate. Afterwards, the cherries are placed in the drying bed where they stay from 25 to 30 days to reach the ideal point and then stored in bags to stabilized for 8 days before taking them to the purchasing station.