Finca Momoto is located in the mountainous part of Chiriquí, in the Santa Clara / Renacimiento area, close to the Panama–Costa Rica border and La Amistad National Park. Its altitude of around 1,500 masl, cooler nights, humid mountain climate and proximity to protected forest create excellent conditions for specialty coffee.

When Aliss acquired the farm, it had been neglected for many years. The first steps were therefore not about quick production, but about rebuilding basic infrastructure. Together with Luis Miranda (check out his other project in Nicaragua), who was involved in the early development of the farm, she built a new wooden cabin for cherry pickers and new shaded African beds. These made slower, gentler drying possible, which is essential for naturally processed coffees.

From the beginning, Aliss worked with several exotic varieties. Alongside classic Panamanian favourites such as Geisha, Maragogipe, Pacamara and Laurina, she also planted Ethiopian genetic material with unusual names such as Afribonga, Afrissinia and Afroamaro. This combination of family experience, high altitude, biodiversity and unusual varieties gives Momoto a character that stands apart even from other Hartmann family projects.

Finca Momoto belongs to Aliss Hartmann, sister of Ratibor Hartmann and the only daughter in the Hartmann family. Aliss grew up at Finca Hartmann, where coffee was a natural part of everyday life. For her, harvest as a child was not only work, but a time when the farm came alive with pickers, the smell of drying coffee and constant movement between trees, drying areas and warehouses.

As an adult, Aliss took on mainly the administrative and financial role within the Hartmann family business. She acquired her own farm later, when she wanted to continue the family tradition with her children Giuliana and Giuseppe and pass on to them the same relationship with land, nature and coffee that she had inherited from her parents.

Momoto is therefore a very personal project. It is not just another coffee farm within a well-known Panamanian coffee family, but Aliss Hartmann’s own path: smaller in scale, focused on nature, family, careful work and varieties that can show a distinct expression of Panamanian terroir.

Finca Momoto focuses primarily on natural processing. This makes sense both in terms of flavour and sustainability: when done well, natural processing highlights sweetness, fruit character and aromatics, while also significantly reducing water use compared with the fully washed method.

In the first years, shaded African beds played the central role. They allowed the cherries to dry slowly, without overheating under direct sun, and gave Aliss better control over fermentation and drying. Slow, even drying is critical for natural coffees: it defines cup cleanliness, flavour stability and how well the green coffee holds up after export.

In recent years, Aliss has increasingly focused on controlled drying in special sealed drying rooms. These are hermetically closed spaces equipped with industrial dehumidifiers, where freshly harvested cherries can be dried according to a defined profile down to a final moisture content of around 10.5–11.5 %. The main advantage is independence from weather, greater consistency between lots and more precise control over the final flavour profile.

This drying method also helps slow down the ageing of green coffee. For a roastery, this is a crucial factor: a well-dried natural lot can preserve its clarity, aromatics and sweetness for longer, instead of quickly losing freshness or developing heavy, tired notes.