Region: Los Naranjos, Boquete, Chiriqui
Elevation: 1500 - 1700 masl
About: The Garrido family has been cultivating coffee in Boquete, Panama, since 1959, when Teodoro Garrido established the family’s first farm. In the mid-1970s, Teodoro expanded the business by acquiring another existing farm, now known as Mama Cata. Originally established in 1911, it is one of Boquete’s oldest coffee farms. Teodoro renamed the property in honour of its previous owner. Following Teodoro’s passing a few years ago, the family farms are now overseen by his two daughters, Liliana and Gissell. Fiercely passionate and markedly different in character, the sisters share a clear vision to carry their father’s work into the future.
The Garrido family has placed in the top ten across all three Best of Panama categories—Geisha Washed, Geisha Natural, and Varietal—on multiple occasions, with many of those coffees coming from Mama Cata. This Geisha lot was processed as a traditional natural and dried at the Garrido family’s mill on custom raised beds. Drawing inspiration from another of Teodoro’s passions, rose cultivation, the drying beds sit inside a large greenhouse. This approach allows for precise temperature control through adjustable ventilation and increased vertical capacity, with beds stacked four high.
