Where to buy Panamanian chocolate, in Panama and abroad

Panama makes very little chocolate and exports almost none of it as finished bars. That is the first thing to know. The second is that what exists is getting good quickly, and most of it is sold within a few blocks of each other in Panama City or at the farms themselves.

The brands to look for

• Oro Moreno (Panama City, since 2013). The pioneer. Dark bars from Bocas del Toro beans, 60% to 90%, clean and classic. Cacao Bar Selection in Obarrio is the exclusive distributor; also in Casco Viejo, the airport and good supermarkets.
• Mayamei Cacao (Almirante, Bocas del Toro). The award-winner: bronze at the 2021 Cocoa of Excellence Awards. Bars from 55% to 90%, nibs and drinking chocolate, sold at the farm and online.
• Nomé Chocolate (Casco Viejo, since 2019). Bean-to-bar with the best bonbons in the city. An 83% dark, a Geisha-coffee milk bar and a white chocolate with Chiriquí Pompona vanilla.
• Bocao (Panama City, since 2018). Younger, with beans from indigenous communities in Bocas and more adventurous inclusions.
• I Love Panama Chocolate by Sagrado Cacao. The souvenir brand with ideas: a Canal bar, a Congo-culture bar, an ají chombo chili bar. Airport, hotel shops, Casco Viejo.
• Quetzal Cacao (Chiriquí). Tree-to-bar from a living collection of old Panamanian cacao. Small batches, found in Boquete.
• Wild Cane Chocolate (Bocas Town). Tiny-batch bars, tropical-fruit bonbons, cacao liqueur and cocada from Victoria Canonico, ordered by WhatsApp or found at Amaranto and Sol Bungalows.
• DOP Chocolate (Panama City). Processor and maker with its own organic farms near Almirante; bonbons, pralines and cacao products to order.
• Cacao Las Minas (Herrera). Arelys Ramos’s family company in Criollo country: 100%, 70% and 50% bars, nibs, husk tea and a cacao cream liqueur, shipped nationwide.
• Farm chocolate from Bocas. Finca Montezuma, Up in the Hill, La Loma, Native Chocolate and the Oreba community all sell bars and nibs on site. They are the most direct purchase you can make.
• Toño’s Factory (Panama City, opened October 2026). A bean-to-bar workshop with a café, worth a visit as much as a purchase.

Where to buy in Panama

1. Casco Viejo and Obarrio, Panama City. Nomé’s factory shop in the old town and Cacao Bar Selection in Obarrio, the only places you can taste three or four Panamanian makers side by side. La Factoría’s deli and online shop delivers nationwide.
2. Tocumen Airport. Oro Moreno and I Love Panama in the duty-free area. Buy here last, as prices are higher.
3. Boquete. Boquete Coffee Traders and the Tuesday market stock Quetzal Cacao and Bocas brands.
4. The farms. Cash, usually. Bring small bills.

Where to buy abroad

Honestly: it is hard. A few online specialty retailers in the United States carry single-origin bars made from Panamanian beans, usually by foreign makers who buy from COCABO or from Bocas microlots. Search for “Panama” on sites that sort by origin. Boquete Coffee Traders ships some Panamanian bars internationally.

Amazon, as of 2026, carries almost nothing made in Panama. What it does carry, and what we think is worth your money if you want to train your palate before a trip, is in our buying guide: single-origin bars from neighbouring origins, organic nibs, 100 percent cacao paste, and the three books we keep on the farm.

How to read a Panamanian bar

Look for the origin on the label: “Bocas del Toro” is specific and good; “Panama” alone is fine; no origin is a warning. Look for the percentage: 70 percent and above lets the beans speak. Look for the ingredient list: cacao, sugar, maybe cocoa butter. Anything with vegetable fat or vanillin is candy.

And look for the date. Chocolate does not go bad, but it goes dull after a year, and a bar that has sat in a hot shop will have bloomed grey. Ask for the newest.

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