Cafeistmo began with a shared idea between two friends, Andy García and Carlo Escobar.

Andy brought a background in design and a strong visual instinct. Carlo brought years of international experience and a deep appreciation for how Panama is seen beyond its borders. Together, they saw an opportunity to create a coffee brand that could express something larger than the product itself: a sense of place, identity, and connection.

The first spark came through a simple visual idea. While exploring the brand’s identity, Andy developed a logo inspired by the shape of Panama and its relationship with coffee. When Carlo saw it, the concept immediately resonated.

That idea became the foundation of Cafeistmo — a brand created in Panama, inspired by Panama, and built to share its coffee culture with the world.

Around three million years ago, the Isthmus of Panama rose between two oceans, joining North and South America and reshaping ecosystems, ocean currents, and climate far beyond its narrow borders.

That extraordinary geography helped create the Panama we know today: a meeting point of continents, species, cultures, and landscapes.

For Cafeistmo, the isthmus is more than a geographical feature. It is part of the story behind the country’s remarkable biodiversity — and the unique environments where some of its most distinctive coffees are grown.

In Panama’s western highlands, especially in Chiriquí, elevation, volcanic soils, rainfall, and a mosaic of microclimates create exceptional conditions for growing specialty coffee.

Here, relatively short distances can produce remarkably different expressions in the cup. Altitude, exposure, variety, processing, and the character of each farm all contribute to coffees with their own distinct identity.

For us, this is what makes Panamanian coffee so compelling: every lot carries something of the place where it was grown.

Panama’s reputation for exceptional specialty coffee reached a turning point in 2004, when Hacienda La Esmeralda presented a lot of Geisha at the Best of Panama competition.

Its intensely floral, aromatic profile stood apart from what many judges associated with Latin American coffee at the time. The lot won the competition and set a new auction-price record, drawing international attention to both the Geisha variety and Panama as a coffee origin.

In the years since, Panamanian producers have continued to push the boundaries of quality through meticulous cultivation, lot separation, processing, and experimentation. Today, Panama is internationally recognized for coffees of remarkable character — with Geisha at the forefront, but far from the whole story.

Cafeistmo works with some of Panama’s most respected coffee producers to select coffees that reflect the diversity and character of the country’s growing regions.

Our collections have included coffees from renowned estates such as Hacienda La Esmeralda, Janson Coffee, and Finca Lérida — each with its own history, terroir, and approach to cultivation and processing.

We look for coffees that stand on their own for quality and character, while also contributing to a broader portrait of Panama. Together, they reveal just how varied one small coffee origin can be.

Coffee in Panama is inseparable from the landscapes that surround it. Forests, wildlife, water, altitude, and climate all form part of the same environment in which coffee is grown.

For Cafeistmo, celebrating Panamanian coffee also means recognizing the natural world that makes it possible. That commitment is reflected in projects such as our Fauna Collection, which helps support the work of APPC in wildlife rescue and rehabilitation.

We believe responsibility is best expressed through meaningful actions — by valuing origin, respecting the environments behind the coffee, and supporting initiatives that help protect what makes Panama so extraordinary.