Hartmann Coffee Beans Introduction Flavor Description Variety Characteristics Location Estate

Introduction to Hartmann Estate

Hartmann's story is as legendary as its coffee. The estate sits in Santa Clara, Chiriquí Province. Its founder was Alois St. Hartmann, also known as Luis Hartmann, 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.

When World War I began, he was still a boy and was left abandoned. Thanks to his mother he managed to hide aboard a ship bound for Pennsylvania in the United States and survived. Both of his brothers joined the military and died in the war. Luis Hartmann traveled through several countries with friends until 1911, when he reached Panama, settling in Chiriquí Province in 1912 and working mainly in the Candel area, where he built the first small cabin in the primeval forest.

Hartmann today is a family business founded in 1940 by Ratibor Hartmann, Alois's son. In 1966 Ratibor married Dinora Sandi from Costa Rica, and together they had five children: Ratibor Jr., Alan, Alexander, Alice, and Kelly. Each family member takes on different responsibilities, from cultivation management to harvesting and processing to estate tours. A family that has grown coffee for over 100 years is a legend in its own right.

Hand-Poured Hartmann

15g of coffee grounds, medium grind on a Fuji ghost tooth blade at setting 4, a V60 dripper, and water at 88 to 89 degrees Celsius. First pour 30g of water for a 27 second bloom, then pour to 105g and pause. Wait until the water level drops halfway before pouring again, slowly, until the total reaches 225g, discarding the tail end. Water-to-coffee ratio 1:15, extraction time 2:00.

Quality Assurance

The family business runs a state-level cupping laboratory and sample roasting room, and it cups every batch of cherries rigorously. That is what keeps Hartmann's quality stable and steadily improving. A scientific approach to coffee plus nearly 100 years of family experience guarantees the product: a legendary estate, a state-level cupping lab and sample roasting room, and a rigorous attitude with strict standards behind every lot.

Flavor Profile

This batch is the red wine processed Caturra variety. From the first grind it releases an extremely rich fruit wine aroma, accompanied by fresh smoky wood spice and the particular berry sweetness of natural-style processing. Smelling it alone is intoxicating. On the palate it opens into rich tropical fruit, like a cocktail carefully blended from passion fruit, mango, orange, and berry juices with peach wine. No, it is a cocktail from nature itself.

Wine Processing Method

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

The wine processing method is also called controlled fermentation, or lactic and acetic acid fermentation.

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

A dedicated hand-picking team is trained and follows specialty bean picking requirements strictly: unripe fruit under 2 percent, defective beans under 3 percent, and floaters under 5 percent.

Acetic Acid Fermentation - Aerobic Fermentation

Lactic Acid Fermentation - Anaerobic Fermentation

Flavor Expectations:

Acetic Acid Fermentation: Cleaner, lively acidity, brighter acidity, citric acid

Lactic Acid Fermentation: More rounded mouthfeel, slightly less clean than acetic fermentation, higher body, malic and tartaric acid

Previously, mills used traditional methods passed down through generations, such as biting a bean to judge fermentation. That approach is uncontrollable and variable. The controlled fermentation method instead uses pH value to monitor fermentation, which delivers predictable results and consistent batch quality.

Caturra Variety

Caturra is a single-gene mutation of Bourbon, discovered in Brazil in 1937. It yields better and resists disease better than Bourbon, and the trees are shorter, making harvesting easier. Unfortunately, like Bourbon it suffers biennial production cycles. It is highly adaptable, though, and needs no shade trees, thriving in direct sunlight, which earned it the name "Sun Coffee." It tolerates high-density planting but demands more fertilizer, raising costs, which is why farmers were slow to accept it at first.

In the 1970s, when coffee prices soared, farmers switched to Caturra to raise production, and strong promotion by Brazilian and Colombian authorities made the results pay off. Farmer acceptance of Caturra meant a major shift in cultivation technique, as Brazil and Colombia adopted high-yield, high-density sun growing. By 1990, one million hectares could harvest 14 million bags of coffee, a 60 percent increase in production. It is no wonder that high-yielding, high-quality Caturra became a variety producing countries rely on.

Caturra suits planting anywhere from 700 meters up to 1700 meters. Its altitude adaptability is strong, and the higher it grows the better the flavor, though yields fall in step, the fate of specialty beans. Some in academia call Caturra the dense, sun-exposed version of Bourbon, which is apt. A yellow Caturra, Caturra Amarello, also exists in Central and South America, though it does not carry the reputation of Yellow Bourbon.

Lightly roasted, Caturra shows obvious acidity and overall brightness. With proper processing its sweetness can express very well, but body is relatively low compared with Bourbon, and mouthfeel cleanliness can fall a little short.

Caturra cherries are usually red, but in a very few regions yellow Caturra appears. Hawaii, for example, grows a small amount.

Coffee Details

Country: Panama

Grade: SHG

Region: Volcán Region

Altitude: 1250-1700 Meters

Processing Method: Wine Processing Method

Variety: Caturra

Estate: Hartmann Estate

Flavor: Smoky wood spices, berries, fruit wine aroma

Panama Hartmann Estate Caturra Wine Processing Method

Manufacturer: FrontStreet Coffee
Ingredients: In-house roasted
Shelf Life: 30 days
Net Weight: 227g
Packaging: Bulk
Taste: Neutral
Coffee Bean Degree: Roasted beans
Contains Sugar: Sugar-free
Origin: Panama
Coffee Type: Other
Roast Level: Medium roast

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

Panama's growing areas sit in the west of the country, in Boquete, Volcan, Santa Clara, and Piedra de Candela, with Boquete and Volcan the names drinkers hear most. Both lie within Chiriquí province, squarely inside the coffee belt, with fertile volcanic soil and old-growth forest. FrontStreet Boquete Washed Geisha is the estate-level entry into that terroir. Mist and cloud regularly cover the mountains through Boquete, keeping days humid and nights cool, and Baru volcano's fertile soil does the rest. The higher the planting altitude, the longer the cherries take to ripen and the more nutrients they take up, which is why the flavor grows richer and more distinctive. Planted at 1600 meters on volcanic ash soil, it brews with jasmine florals, green tea, honey, citrus, and orange.

If Hartmann's fruit wine aroma is the draw, FrontStreet Panama Washed Butterfly is an easy way to taste Geisha lineage in a similar fruit-forward frame. Geisha is a rare wild variety and a fixture at the top of competitions worldwide, with slender green beans, an unexpected citrus lift in the roasted bean, and a finish full of florals and fruit sweetness. Butterfly carries half Geisha blood, a blend of Geisha, Caturra, and Catuai planted on the Baru volcano in Boquete. Panama's microclimate brings generous rainfall and wide day-night temperature swings, and the volcanic rock soil, careful picking, and fine processing let it perform on all fronts: body, citrus acidity, and the jasmine aroma of Geisha. It is good as pour-over and as cold brew.

For the highest grade, FrontStreet Esmeralda Red Label Geisha comes from a single plot harvested above 1700 meters with a cupping requirement of 91 points and a refined orange-blossom honey character. The Esmeralda estate both discovered the Geisha flavor and popularized it. After first identifying the flavor, the estate cupped different sections of the farm, set planting plots by altitude, and settled the Red Label, Green Label, and Blue Label grades used today.

FrontStreet Esmeralda Diamond Mountain is the estate's other star brand alongside Geisha, built mainly on Caturra and Catuai. Its green beans are picked from Jaramillo and Canas Verdes, two of Esmeralda's four independent farms, where volcanic soil and the shade of primary forest give the coffee rich fruit aromatics and sweetness.