The Hartmann siblings work as a close-knit team. Ratibor is in charge of R&D, quality assurance, roasting, and sales. He is also a certified Q Grader. Allan is in charge of processing, manages the beneficio (wet and dry mills), and is also a carpenter. Alexander is in charge of the farm management, picking schedules, and ensuring coffee tree and vegetation health. Kelly is the mechanic and works on the many numerous machines that run the mill. Lastly, Alice, the lone sister, is in charge of administration, logistics, accounting, and running the various bird watching and nature tours that go through their farm. Naturally, the families of each sibling also contribute and together they form the Hartmann “clan”, as they are affectionately known.

Over the past twelve years, I have made many visits to the Hartmann family farm. During these visits, I have worked with the family on improving many aspects of their business and production. In all honesty, I don’t have to ever push them for quality improvements, they are driven to improve – it’s inspiring.

In 2013, the family improved drying procedures by increasing their quantity of drying beds, which allowed the coffee to dry slowly, and to the correct endpoint. In 2014, the Hartmanns worked to better their selection of ripe cherry. In 2015 they raised the bar with the storage of some of their parchment in climate control and in 2016-2018 they improved their dry-milling techniques, resulting in coffee that is cleaner and has even better shelf life. Since then, they have been working on improving fermentations and natural coffee processing.

This lot of Maragogype definitely benefited from the fermentation improvements. The coffee was de-pulped immediately after picking, and anaerobically fermented for 40 hours. The coffee was then dried on raised beds. The fermentation improvement can be seen in increased body, heightened fruit flavours and more pronounced acidity.

This green coffee was frozen immediately on arrival in Calgary, to preserve freshness.

-Sebastian