Image 1 of 5
Image 2 of 5
Image 3 of 5
Image 4 of 5
Image 5 of 5
We visited Santamaria Estate for the first time this year and knew that we had encountered something special.
Santamaria Estate is located in Paso Ancho, in the Tierra Altas district of Chiriqui, Panama. The coffee plantation has been helmed by three generations. Don Urbano Santamaría started Santamaria Estate 75 years ago, arriving at the mountain and began clearing trees from the dense forest. In 30 years, he handed over the farm to his son, Don José Luis Santamaría, with an impressive density of 1800 seedlings per hectare with Arabica varieties like Criollo, Bourbon and Mundo Novo. Jose Luis’ continued sustainable farming practices and began planting highly productive varietals like Caturra. In 1990, his son Edwin Santamaria took over the management and not only doubled productivity but grew the specialty coffee arm as well. Fast forward to today, the family has won numerous high-ranked awards in the Best of Panama auction, a testament to their strong traditions and processes passed down from three generations.
Edwin has shared with us that one of the secrets of Santamaria is the soil. Their microbiology is truly unique, with the surrounding volcanic soil providing abundant with nutrient-rich organic materials that help to develop stronger coffee trees.
Out of 120 hectares of land, 60 hectares are planted with varietals such as caturra, typica, gesha and a unique varietal called centroamericano. Santamaria Estate is one out of very few farms in Panama to work with World Coffee Research to grow new varietals like centroamericano due to their unique microclimate.
Since taking over the farm from his father, Edwin and his team have searched for ways to continually improve the quality of their coffees. They developed the hydronatural process from a trial and error period of three years, with the goal of looking for different flavour profiles beyond traditional washed or natural processes. After hand picking and sorting ripe cherries, the coffees are fermented then rehydrated as whole cherries, slow dried for four weeks on african beds in indirect sun.
This hydronatural processed centroamericano is the first coffee we are launching from Santamaria and we are excited to share more of their amazing coffees in the future. It is a sweet and syrupy coffee, reminding us of plum and honey with a long magnolia floral finish.
