Blog | Ecuador Juan Carlos Velez Sidra Natural
Category: Our Coffees
Published: March 6, 2025
Finca Velez has over 200 years of history, beginning with General Ignacio Torres. A decorated Colombian patriot, General Torres fought alongside El Libertador, Simón BolÃvar, for independence from the Spanish Empire. Later in life, General Torres married a woman from Cuenca, Azuay’s capital city. She was Velez’s family ancestor, and the couple secured a loan to purchase the land that would become Finca Velez.
Through the many, many decades of stewardship, sections of the farm have been sold off; still, Juan Carlos and the Velez family own and operate a large portion of the original plot, about 25 acres.
Coffee was brought to cultivate at the farm by Juan Carlos’s parents. When his father passed away, Juan Carlos, himself a distinguished rose farmer who exports 10 million roses every year, worked to improve the farm’s infrastructure and agricultural practices. About four acres at the estate are dedicated to coffee, which grows with full sun and drip irrigation alongside guava and orange.
In 2000, Typica and Sidra varieties were introduced to further improve quality. This Sidra, however, comes from the genetic bank at Hacienda La Papaya. Seeds are periodically reintroduced from the bank to the farm in order to preserve original varietal characteristics over many generations.
Despite all this agricultural expertise, Velez adheres to the philosophy that “if we don’t have a good post-harvest, it’s worthless.” So, after harvest, intact cherries are rinsed until clean, then hand-selected for ideal ripeness. The sorted coffee is sent to a controlled drying room where shade, humidity, temperature, and airflow are all carefully monitored. Cherries are turned on the table at least once daily, often more, for 20-30 days until dry.
Once the coffee is dry, it is sent to CafExporto for extensive quality control testing and packaging for export. With the export infrastructure in place from Juan Peña and CafExporto, Velez is now able to bring his expertise to the international coffee market.
Producer: Juan Carlos Velez
Farm: Finca Velez
Region: Azuay
Varietal: Sidra
Process: Natural
Altitude: 1700 MASL
Finca Velez has over 200 years of history, beginning with General Ignacio Torres. A decorated Colombian patriot, General Torres fought alongside El Libertador, Simón BolÃvar, for independence from the Spanish Empire. Later in life, General Torres married a woman from Cuenca, Azuay’s capital city. She was Velez’s family ancestor, and the couple secured a loan to purchase the land that would become Finca Velez.
Through the many, many decades of stewardship, sections of the farm have been sold off; still, Juan Carlos and the Velez family own and operate a large portion of the original plot, about 25 acres.
Coffee was brought to cultivate at the farm by Juan Carlos’s parents. When his father passed away, Juan Carlos, himself a distinguished rose farmer who exports 10 million roses every year, worked to improve the farm’s infrastructure and agricultural practices. About four acres at the estate are dedicated to coffee, which grows with full sun and drip irrigation alongside guava and orange.
In 2000, Typica and Sidra varieties were introduced to further improve quality. This Sidra, however, comes from the genetic bank at Hacienda La Papaya. Seeds are periodically reintroduced from the bank to the farm in order to preserve original varietal characteristics over many generations.
Despite all this agricultural expertise, Velez adheres to the philosophy that “if we don’t have a good post-harvest, it’s worthless.” So, after harvest, intact cherries are rinsed until clean, then hand-selected for ideal ripeness. The sorted coffee is sent to a controlled drying room where shade, humidity, temperature, and airflow are all carefully monitored. Cherries are turned on the table at least once daily, often more, for 20-30 days until dry.
Once the coffee is dry, it is sent to CafExporto for extensive quality control testing and packaging for export. With the export infrastructure in place from Juan Peña and CafExporto, Velez is now able to bring his expertise to the international coffee market.
Producer: Juan Carlos Velez
Farm: Finca Velez
Region: Azuay
Varietal: Sidra
Process: Natural
Altitude: 1700 MASL