THE STORY BEHIND
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, who laid the ground work for Finca Hartmann, which was founded by his son, Ratibor Hartmann, in 1940.
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 cultivation, 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 both the employees and the buyers like their vision: working in harmony with nature, working the land without destroying it. The finca consists of several smaller farms/lots, all located between 1.300 and 2.000 m above sea level with nearly 100hectares 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 here 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 to sustain a long-term quality coffee production cycle.
The Hartmanns are also experimenting with new varietals, that have not been present in Panama before, trying to find varietals that feel at home in Panama, figuring out the right terroir for each new varietal on which it performs best.
