Espresso: Panama Mi Finquita Washed Catuai/Caturra

The new Panama coffees have arrived finally at our roastery.  We could not have been more thrilled with all the Panama coffee we bought. This coffee is produced by one of the Hartmann family members, Ratibor and his wife Tessie. We found notes of jasmine, but also some tangerine or strawberry acidity, with milk chocolate or brown sugar mouthfeel. We hope you enjoy it!

Mi Finquita is a project founded by long-term coffee professionals and coffee producers Ratibor Hartmann and his wife Tessie. Ratibor is one of the siblings of Finca Hartmann, so coffee is practically in his blood. His answer to the opportunity of the growing specialty coffee sector and the increasing demand of customers for specially produced lots of coffee was the project of Mi Finquita. Using their contacts to other coffee producers and smaller farms and their knowledge of coffee production and processing Ratibor and Tessie process and help produce coffees from a handful of farms and sell them under the brand “Mi Finquita” which means “My small farm”.

The farms are located in and around Los Pozos, in the Chiriquí Province of Panama, between 1.650- 1.900 meters. They currently produce varietals like Caturra, Bourbon and Geisha. The climate is mild tropical with temperature as low as 4°C at night and sometimes even frost and ice. The annual averages are 18 °C during the day, 15°C during the morning and a maximum of 26 ° C in the afternoons during the summer.

In the production of their coffees they keep in mind the need to differentiate themselves in a market as competitive as the specialty coffee market, and more than producing coffees they call it “designing” coffees, applying science, traditional and innovative fermentation methods, always with the clients’ needs and wishes in mind. The results are a serious of limited specialty coffee lots, with exotic flavor profiles. The management of all the farms is done in harmony with the environment, with ecologically friendly products used in minimum quantities and only in cases necessary.

After harvest, cherry is pulped. Coffee is then fermented and washed in clean water. Washed parchment is moved to raised drying beds. Coffee is turned regularly to promote even drying. On average, drying takes between 1 and 3 weeks. If the weather is poor, parchment may be finished in mechanical rotary dryers.