Finca La Mula
Finca La Mula is a small, steep Geisha farm in the Chiriquí province of Panama, on the southern slopes of the Barú Volcano near Boquete, between about 1,700 and 1,800 metres (5,575–5,906 ft).12 It is owned by the Dutch-born coffee consultant Willem Boot and managed on the ground by Kelly Hartmann, of the Hartmann coffee-growing family.32
It is a forest farm rather than a plantation — the coffee grows under native cloud-forest canopy on wooded slopes — and it is planted with essentially one thing: Geisha. That single-variety bet is what the farm is for. Boot’s day job is teaching roasters and buyers how to judge coffee; La Mula is where he grows it himself.
The farm’s headline moment came in 2015, when JBC Coffee Roasters of Madison, Wisconsin sold a Finca La Mula Panama Geisha that Coffee Review scored 97 points and named its number one coffee of the year, at **59.95 for eight ounces** — roughly 120 a pound for roasted coffee.4
Story
Boot’s own account is short and specific: “In 2005 I purchased some forested land on the slopes of the Baru Volcano near Boquete, Panama and that’s where we established Finca La Mula.”3 The planting was done by the Panamanian grower Graciano Cruz, and Boot describes the result as “well over 5,000 Geisha trees at this forest farm.”3
That makes La Mula a separate project from Finca Sophia, the higher-altitude Volcán farm Boot co-founded in 2008 with California roaster people. La Mula is his own; Sophia is a group venture. The two are often muddled because Kelly Hartmann manages both.
What grows there, and how it is made
Everything on the farm is Geisha — the Ethiopia-derived variety with the jasmine-and-bergamot aroma that made Panama famous. The farm sells lots under both natural (dried whole inside the fruit) and washed labels, and has also released anaerobic naturals — fruit fermented in sealed, oxygen-free tanks before drying, which pushes the cup toward lychee, clove and honey.21
The farm’s own site states that no herbicides or insecticides are used, with fertiliser applied selectively, and that it employs workers from the Ngöbe-Buglé people year-round rather than only at harvest.1 Year-round employment is worth noting: most Panamanian estates hire Ngäbe-Buglé pickers seasonally, so a permanent crew is a different arrangement — see Ngäbe-Buglé coffee labour.
The 97-point coffee
Coffee Review’s July 2015 review is the best-documented lot in the farm’s history. It credits the coffee to “La Mula farm, managed by coffee expert Willem Boot and associates” in Chiriquí, western Panama, and describes an unusual processing variation: the ripe fruit was macerated — soaked in slightly heated water — before the fruit was removed, which lifts the fermented, fruity side of the cup.4
Worth keeping straight: Coffee Review is a critic’s score, published by a review site, not a price discovered by bidders at Best of Panama or a green-coffee auction. A 97 there says a panel liked it enormously; it does not by itself mean a record was set. See Coffee scoring for what a point on the 100-point scale actually represents.
Who buys it
- JBC Coffee Roasters (United States) — the roaster behind the 2015 Coffee Review number one.4
- Mame (Switzerland) — offered a “Finca La Mula, Geisha Natural Anaerobic” as its February 2025 coffee.2
- The farm also sells directly, roasted and as green coffee, through lamulacoffee.com.1
To verify — the competition record
- A Best of Panama 2014 first place for a La Mula natural Geisha. This claim is carried in this wiki’s Willem Boot note, where it traces to a single Coffee Quality Institute educator page that now returns 404. No official confirmation was found in the sources consulted here either, and La Mula does not appear in Best of Panama results archive. Check bestofpanama.org before repeating it.
- Any auction result at all. No Best of Panama, ACE or private-auction catalogue entry for Finca La Mula was found. Prices sometimes quoted for the farm in trade write-ups are retail prices for roasted coffee, which are not comparable to farm-gate or auction prices.
To verify — farm facts that disagree between sources
- How many trees. Boot Coffee says “well over 5,000 Geisha trees”;3 the farm’s own shop site says “over 6,000”.1 Both are first-party and they were published years apart, so the farm may simply have grown — but do not quote a single figure as settled.
- The natural/washed split and the harvest window. A Boot Coffee farm document is cited in the research for 80% sundried natural / 20% washed and a January–May harvest with further pickings through the year. That document is a PDF that could not be read at source, so neither number is confirmed here.
- Sub-varieties. The same unread document, and a retailer blog that could not be fetched, are the only sources for green-tip, bronze-tip and dwarf Geisha selections on the farm. Unconfirmed.
- Farm size. No source consulted gives the area in hectares. Any figure would be invented.
- Where the name comes from. The Swiss roaster Mame says “The land was named ‘Finca La Mula’, because Willem visited the farm first on a mule.”2 That is a single retailer retelling the owner’s story, not a first-party statement — a good anecdote, not a sourced fact.
- Certifications. No organic, Rainforest Alliance or other certification is named in any source consulted. Treat the farm as uncertified unless the farm says otherwise.
Related
- Willem Boot · Kelly Hartmann · Graciano Cruz · Finca Sophia
- Panama · Hacienda La Esmeralda · Elida Estate · Carmen Estate · Finca Deborah
- Geisha · Natural process · Washed process · Anaerobic fermentation
- Best of Panama · Best of Panama results archive · Coffee scoring · Premiumisation · Ngäbe-Buglé coffee labour