Mario Fonseca Pacamara Natural

Mario Fonseca purchased Hacienda Mil Cumbres in 2015 as a cattle farm, but being so close to the mountains and on the slopes of a volcano, he soon realized he was sitting on a golden coffee growing ticket. So, Mario hired his uncle Payín Imendia, who has tons of coffee expertise, to help him start the coffee farm. They planted Geisha during the first year at the farm. In 2017 and 2018, Ratibor Hartmann took over the management of the farm and was solely responsible for planting Pacamara, more Geisha, and introducing strict processing protocols for their naturals.

Hacienda Mil Cumbres is located in a relatively unknown growing region in Panama: Cordillera. This region gets more rainwater than the rest of Panama’s coffee regions and while many believe that wet climate is challenging for coffee, Mario believes it’s one of the reasons the coffees that come out of his farm are turning heads. Set in the middle of the mountains and a native rain forest - which covers about 70% of the property - the farm has a great variety of flora and fauna. The oft-changing amounts of rain and sun coupled with variable temperatures create great growing conditions.

Natural processed coffees are the reason I fell in love with coffee in the first place. I remember tasting a natural Harrar back in 2005 that completely redefined my expectations of what coffee could be. Since then I have been mostly disappointed and let down by naturals. It wasn’t until recently (in 2018) that we started buying naturals from other producers not named Ratibor Hartmann (we have been buying Hartmann naturals since 2010). Now, it seems that there is finally real appreciation for the fact that producing great naturals is really, really hard. At Mil Cumbres, their process is a good example of why it’s hard. On day 1, they pick the coffee cherries and bring them back to home base to wash them, float all the low-density cherries, and remove foreign matter (sticks, leaves, etc..) - this is all done by hand.

The next step is where things get interesting. The cherries are placed in hermetic barrels for 24-72 hours to ferment in an anaerobic environment. This is where the big fruit and spice flavours begin to form. After this process, the cherries are moved to raised beds for drying with intermittent sunlight. They stay here for about a week and then move to the completely shaded drying beds for the remaining of the drying. Given the shade and cool conditions at the farm, the coffee takes a total of 30-35 days - ideal for drying naturals properly.

I have been tasting this coffee for a few harvests now and this past year, Mario and his team started to really find a new gear in terms of quality. I’m proud to finally bring it to Calgary!