Occasionally, Sunday afternoon is sacred to me. Then I just sit down in cafe ‘t Hoogt and read a newspaper and do a little writing all by myself. Personnell must have long ago observed I’m here once every couple of weeks and only on Sunday, reading the Saturday paper. I know the small crowd, for example, there is a guy who I always just nod to when I come in, I’ll never talk to him and we both know it.
My eye fell on the advertised coffee of the month: the Finca Hartmann “Birdsong”. I’m not much of a special offer kind of a guy and usually ignore them, but this time I must have been over-curious and ordered the highly appraised coffee.
The Finca Hartmann “Birdsong” special reserve crop 2004 turned out to be one of the best coffees I ever had. I can only agree with the poetic description that advertises it: a pleasurable sweet aroma finished off with an unique cider aroma and a light almond taste, delicate and uncomplicated. This coffee is grown at the coffee plantage of the Hartmann family in North Panama (http://www.fincahartmann.com) and is of the type 100% Arabica.
After some hunting on the web, I found the following text at http://www.sweetmarias.com/coffee.arch2001-02.pt3.html
This coffee from the Northeast mountain state of Chirqui has a beautiful dark green-blue appearance (fresh, new crop), with a delicate light-bodied cup that will win over your friends and relatives to the merits of home roasting. Very pleasant clean sweet taste with a unique cedar aromatic woodiness in the finish. This hints that this is Sr. Hartmann’s special lot of coffee that he dries in a special wooden Bodega next to the patios on the farm. The humidity and native hardwoods give the coffee a characteristic flavor -very subtle but unmistakable. It’s not a super complex coffee overall, just real fine and delicate. To get a full sense of this acidity, taste it hot and taste it cool too. In fact, my first sip of it is always a little disappointing based on the wonderful aromatics you get when grinding it. But a lot of bright coffees are this way. As it cools the bright notes that make it so special are fleshed out, and you will fall in love with this coffee by the time you reach the last sip. The Volcan Chirqui is right at the Costa Rican border so it is not a wonder that the coffee cups like a bright, delicate Costa Rican. For more information on the Hartmann farm, see our review of the 2002 Panama Cupping Competition. The Hartmann land is a model of sustainable farming and bird-friendly, shade grown agriculture with much of the farm preserved as forest … in a bitter irony it does not qualify as certified bird-friendly because of very limited use of nitrogen fertilizer!
I can only whole heartedly agree with the above review. Coffee keeps me going some times and it sharpens the mind. By the way, did you know that Voltaire reportedly drank 50 cups of coffee a day?
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