Hartmann Red Wine Process Flavor Description Which Brand of Red Wine Process Coffee is Best

Panama Hartmann Estate Caturra Red Wine Processing

Country: Panama

Grade: SHG

Region: Volcán Region

Altitude: 1250-1700 Meters

Processing Method: Red Wine Processing

Variety: Caturra

Estate: Hartmann Estate

Flavor Notes: Smoked wood spices, berry notes, fruit wine aroma

Manufacturer: FrontStreet Coffee

Ingredients: In-house roasted

Shelf Life: 30 days

Net Weight: 227g

Packaging: Bulk

Taste Profile: Neutral

Bean State: Roasted coffee beans

Sugar Content: Sugar-free

Origin: Panama

Coffee Type: Other

Roast Level: Medium roast

Hartmann Estate Introduction

The story of Hartmann is as legendary as its coffee. Hartmann Estate sits in Santa Clara, in Chiriquí Province. Its founder was Mr. Alois St. Hartmann, known as Luis Hartmann. He was born on June 20, 1891, in the Moravia region of Austria-Hungary, now the Czech Republic, and died on May 25, 1970, at the age of 78.

After World War I began, he was abandoned as a young boy. Thanks to his mother, he managed to hide aboard a ship bound for Pennsylvania, in the United States, and survived. His two brothers both died in the war after joining the military. Luis Hartmann traveled through several countries with his friends until he reached Panama in 1911, settling in Chiriquí Province in 1912 and becoming mainly active in the Candela area. He built the first small cabin in that primeval forest.

Today, Hartmann Estate is a family business founded in 1940 by Ratibor Hartmann, son of Luis Hartmann. In 1966, Ratibor married Dinora Sandi, from Costa Rica. They had five children: Ratibor Jr., Allan, Alexander, Alice, and Kelly. Each family member takes responsibility for coffee cultivation management, harvesting and processing, and estate tours. A family estate that has been growing coffee for more than 100 years is itself a legendary story.

The family business has a state-level cupping laboratory and sample roasting room, and they rigorously cup each batch of coffee cherries. This ensures the stable quality of Hartmann Estate coffee and their continuous pursuit of improvement. Their scientific approach to coffee, together with nearly 100 years of family experience, guarantees their excellent production.

A legendary estate with a state-level cupping laboratory and sample roasting room, where a rigorous attitude and strict standards keep Hartmann Estate's coffee consistently excellent.

Tasting Experience

This batch is red-wine-processed Caturra. From the moment it is ground, it releases an extremely rich fruit-wine aroma, accompanied by fresh smoked-wood spice notes and the special berry sweetness that comes from natural processing. Just smelling it is intoxicating. On the palate it reveals rich tropical fruit, like a cocktail carefully mixed from passion fruit, mango, orange, and berry juices, with peach wine. No, this is a cocktail from nature itself.

Among all the coffee-growing regions on Earth, very few have successfully experimented with this red-wine-like processing method. After years of testing, the method can finally control the acid structure in coffee. Coffee fermented this way gains greatly enhanced sweetness, cleanliness, and a multi-layered, complex yet elegant acidity, and the fermentation significantly improves the quality and uniqueness of the coffee produced.

Red wine processing is also called controlled fermentation, or the lactic acid / acetic acid fermentation method.

The experimental team is led by the American Felipe Sardi and consists of biological scientists and ecologists who apply technologies such as solar energy to cultivation and green bean processing.

The specialized hand-picking team has been trained to strictly follow specialty coffee picking standards: unripe cherries under 2%, defective beans under 3%, and floaters under 5%.

Acetic acid fermentation — Aerobic fermentation

Lactic acid fermentation — Anaerobic fermentation

Expected taste profiles:

Acetic acid fermentation: cleaner, lively acidity, brighter acid quality, citric acid.

Lactic acid fermentation: rounder mouthfeel, lower cleanliness than acetic acid fermentation, higher body, malic acid / tartaric acid.

Before this, processing plants used traditional manual methods passed down through generations, such as biting a bean to gauge the fermentation degree. That method is uncontrollable and variable.

Controlled fermentation uses pH value control to monitor the fermentation degree, yielding predictable results and consistent batch production.

Caturra Variety

Caturra is a single-gene variant of Bourbon, discovered in Brazil in 1937. Both its yield and its disease resistance are better than Bourbon's, and the plant is shorter, which makes harvesting convenient. Unfortunately, like Bourbon, it suffers from biennial production cycles. It is, however, highly adaptable: it needs no shade trees and thrives under direct sunlight, earning it the name "Sun Coffee." It tolerates high-density planting but demands more fertilizer, which raises costs, so farmers were initially slow to accept it.

Then, in the 1970s, when coffee prices soared, farmers rushed to plant Caturra to increase yields. Vigorous promotion by Brazilian and Colombian authorities bore fruit. Farmers' acceptance of Caturra marked a major transformation in cultivation techniques, as Brazil and Colombia adopted high-yield, high-density sun-style planting. By 1990, one million hectares could harvest 14 million bags of coffee beans, a 60% gain in productivity. No wonder the high-yield, high-quality Caturra has become a variety that producing countries now rely on.

Caturra can be planted from low altitudes of 700 meters up to high altitudes of 1700 meters, giving it strong altitude adaptability. The higher the altitude, the better the flavor, though the yield is correspondingly lower, which is the fate of specialty beans. Academics call Caturra the intensive, sun-dried version of Bourbon, which is quite insightful. A yellow variant, Caturra Amarello, also exists in Central and South America, but its reputation does not match that of Yellow Bourbon.

When lightly roasted, Caturra shows obvious acidity and overall brightness. With proper processing, its sweetness can perform beautifully, though its body is relatively low compared with Bourbon and its mouthfeel cleanliness is somewhat lacking.

Caturra usually produces red cherries, but in extremely rare regions there are yellow Caturras, such as the very small amounts grown in Hawaii.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

Panama's coffee-growing areas lie in the west of the country, in Boquete, Volcán, Santa Clara, and Piedra de Candela. Boquete and Volcán are the specialty regions heard about most often: both sit in Chiriquí Province, squarely within the coffee belt, with fertile volcanic soil and ancient forest.

For a first taste of Panama's specialty coffee, FrontStreet Coffee's Boquete Washed Geisha is an excellent entry point. This estate-grade Geisha is grown at 1,600 meters, where rich volcanic ash feeds the plant and builds a deep, fragrant aroma. Brewed, it shows Geisha's signature jasmine florals alongside green tea, honey, citrus, and orange.

FrontStreet Coffee's Panama Washed Butterfly has half of Geisha's fine lineage, composed of Geisha, Caturra, and Catuai and planted in Boquete's Baru volcano area. The special microclimate here brings abundant rainfall and large day-to-night temperature swings, while the region's volcanic-rock soil, careful harvesting, and meticulous processing give the coffee impressive body, citrus acidity, and Geisha's jasmine aroma. It is well suited to both pour-over and cold brew.

For the highest grade of Geisha, FrontStreet Coffee's Emerald Estate Red Label is harvested from a single plot above 1,700 meters and must meet a cupping score of 91, showing a refined orange-blossom, honeyed character. FrontStreet Coffee's Diamond Mountain comes from the same estate's star brand, based mainly on Caturra and Catuai, with green beans taken from two of the estate's independent farms, Jaramillo and Canas Verdes. The volcanic soil and old-growth shade there give the beans rich fruit aroma and sweetness, making it another estate favorite beyond Geisha.