HATCH - Santamaria Estate Lot 31 | Panama - Natural - Geisha

Hatch Coffee Roasters is located in Markham, Ontario, Canada

From HATCH

The Santamaría Estate Coffee farm is located in Paso Ancho,  Tierras Altas District, Province of Chiriquí, Republic of Panama. The lowest point of the farm planted with coffee is 1564 m.a.s.l. while the highest point reaches up to 1946 m.a.s.l. The total farm area is 120 ha of which currently 60 ha are planted with coffee of varieties Caturra, Typica or Criollo and Geisha. The soil has special volcanic characteristics and together with certain amount of rainfall per year produce coffee beans that have very special aroma, acidity and body.

This farm was taken into operation in 1950 by its founder Don Urbano Santamaría (RIP) who established the coffee plantations to sell to the Martins family, the owner of the Finca La Florentina S.A., situated in the neighbourhood of the property of Ing. Santamaría. He began planting tall Arabica varieties like Criollo, Bourbon and Mundo Novo at a density of 1800 seedlings per hectare.

Due to health reasons Don Urbano Santamaría handed over the administration of his estate in 1980 to Don José Luis Santamaría, who continued with the farming practices and maintenance of the estate. He began to plant low tree but high-yielding variety such as Caturra, which has become predominant variety on the farm and currently accounts for 80% of its production. In the 1990s Ing. Edwin Santamaría took over the management of the farm bringing a new dynamic to it, improving the planting and production processes that helped to increase productivity and significantly improved coffee quality.

Due to the introduction of the Caturra variety on the farm, the planting density had been increased to 3 600 seedlings per hectare as Caturra was replanted in between tall varieties. This produced a unique combination in all lots, and at that time this diversity resulted in high-quality coffee and improved production per hectare.