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 family business by acquiring another existing farm – now called, Mama Cata. Originally established in 1911, making it one of Boquete's oldest coffee farms, Teo renamed the farm, to honor its previous owner. Since Teo’s passing a few years ago, the family farms are now under the watchful eyes of Teodoro’s two daughters: Liliana and Gissell. Two fiercely passionate sisters, who couldn’t be more different – but who share a vision, to take the business their father built into the future.   

The Garrido family have placed in the top ten, in all three Best of Panama categories (Geisha Washed, Geisha Natural, & Varietal) multiple time, most of those coffees came from Mama Cata. This Geisha lot was processed as a traditional Natural – dried at the Garrido family’s mill, on unique raised beds. Taking inspiration from another of Teodoro’s passions – cultivating roses - the drying beds at the Garrido family’s mill are within a huge greenhouse. This unique approach to drying not only allows for precise temperature control (through vents allowing optimal air circulation), but it also allows for additional vertical space – the drying beds are stacked 4 high, on top of each other.