People
Finca San Antonio is located in Santa Maria in Huila and is run by Carmelo Velandia and his family. The 16 hectares farm sits at an altitude ranging between 1,650 and 1,820 above sea level.
Carmelo moved from the capital Bogotá to Santa Maria in 2003 to dedicate himself to coffee production. However, it wasn’t until 2013 that he decided to focus on specialty coffee, looking for different ways to sell his coffee.
According to Gloria Maria, Carmelo’s wife, the production of coffee at Finca San Antonio is a family adventure. She handles the finance and administration of the farm, as well as the commercialization of the coffee. Their oldest daughter, Maria Camila, helps in the wet mill, in the registration and separation of all the different lots, in their post-harvest processes, and so on.
Product
Carmelo has been focusing on different varieties for the past several years, as well as different fermentation experiments. On top of that, he has been improving his infrastructure, the wet-mill and drying beds, in order to remain consistent in the production of higher quality coffees.
Finca San Antonio extends for 16 hectares, of which approximately 2 Ha are dedicated to a Natural Reserve and 10 ha are planted with coffee containing the following varieties: 8,000 trees of Castillo, 7,000 trees of Colombia, 13,000 trees of a mixed lot between Castillo and Colombia, 9,000 trees of Cenicafe 1 and 2,000 trees of Java.
Price
Thanks to our stations in Colombia, The Coffee Quest has grown a wide network of farmers, associations, and cooperatives with whom we work closely. It’s exactly thanks to those collaborations, namely through our work with Asocación La Victoria, that we met Carmelo. This is our first year working together. Needless to say, we are extremely excited about future harvests!
Planet
Carmelo truly believes that coffee is life and being able to teach his daughters how to trade it is something that is extremely important to him. The family takes care of the environment by looking after the 16 hectares of natural reserve within the farm.
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