Moon Valley Gesha

The Hartmann family is considered one of the pioneers of the specialty coffee production in Panama. Their story starts with Alois Strasil Hartmann, born in 1891 in the region of Moravia, then Austrian-Hungarian empire (you might understand our personal affinity to this finca!), who laid the groundwork for Finca Hartmann, which was founded by his son, Ratibor Hartmann, in 1940. Alois came to Panama in 1912 in search of adventure, he started two coffee farms and died on May 25th, 1970 at age 78.

His son Ratibor Hartmann turned the 100 has farm and virgin forest he received from his father into the Finca Hartmann coffee farm. In 1966 Ratibor married Dinorah Sandí from Costa Rica. Together they raised 5 children, Ratibor Jr, Allan, Alexander, Aliss and Kelly.

Today Finca Hartmann is a family enterprise – each member of the family is passionately involved in the management and performs a different function in the growth, production, quality control, marketing and tourism offer of the farm. Coffee for them is a way of life, their culture, their family – a lot of work, but also a lot of love. Their harvest employees return every year, as do their buyers, because they like their vision: work together with nature, work the land without destroying it. The finca consists of several smaller farms/lots, all located between 1.300 and 2.000 mts above sea level with nearly 100has of forest reserves bordering on the Parque Nacional de La Amistad. The coffee is grown under the shade of native rainforest trees that have been there for many years. The Hartmanns try not to cut trees, they replant native trees and plantains to maintain the natural cycle and a healthy soil and fauna / all with the aim in mind to sustain a long-term quality coffee production cycle.

“From the beginning, since my parents started with this farm, they have worked the land with a lot of love and respect. We are following in their footsteps, we love this farm, we love what we do, despite the difficulties one might face in the market, and we intend to pass this passion on to our children.” Aliss Hartmann “My father always linked the coffee production to the conservation of the environment.” Ratibor Hartmann

Processing at Finca Hartmann
All the coffee on the farm is shade grown, under lots of native, beneficial trees, meaning they give a lot back to the soil through nitrogen fixing roots or seeds they drop that act as natural fertilizer.

The natural process is started on African raised beds, after picking at the ripest stage. The Hartmanns are very careful that not one drop of water touches the cherries between harvesting and them going on the beds, since water would loosen the mucilage from the skin and the beans and then the sugars would not be transferred as well into the beans, as if they were kept dry. Depending on the weather conditions they are dried outside between 12 and 17 days down to 14.% humidity which is when they go into mechanical driers, where they are finished drying down to 11%-11.5%. In the mechanical driers they try to replicate the same conditions as outside, meaning they dry them slow, without too much heat, and a lot of air flow (which is much more important than heat when drying the beans properly and to the core). Sometimes they even switch the driers off at night to let the beans rest.

Experimantal Lots / Anaerobic Processing
The Hartmanns are one of the pioneers in Panama in experimenting with new processing techniques but also with new varietals – varietals, that have not been present in Panama before, trying to find varietals that feel at home in Panama (like once the Geisha varietal), figuring out the right terroir for each new varietal on which it performs best, etc. The first outcome of these experiments is a varietal called Chicho Gallo, originally brought to Panama from Ethiopia as “Amaro Gayo” (also a region in Ethiopia). The varietal’s original flavour profile shows complex floral and fruit flavors, apricots, strawberry, subtle blueberry. In the Chicho Gallo the floral aspects are definitely very pronounced, together with citrus (orange, grapefruit) flavors, citrus flower, stone fruits, bergamot, some even mention sweet tomatoes.

Credit: Goldkind