Filial pride and each member’s passion for top quality keep the Jansons steadfast in cultivating their legacy in excellent coffee.

The excellence of Panama Geisha grown especially at their Los Alpes farm in Tizingal has frequently been recognized through the Best of Panama Competition, with the family’s lots qualifying for the BOP Auction since 2013.

Coffee champions proudly showcase Janson Coffee Geisha up to the world stage. Most amazingly yet, it was used to win the 2023 World Barista Championship and rank among the top finishers at the 2023 World Brewer’s Cup. Our very own 2024 UAE National Brewer’s Cup and Barista Champions also represented Janson Coffee in their world routines, landing them both in the Semis.

This year, the Jansons’ Geisha Natural, La Higa Reserve from Los Alpes, garnered 18th Place at the Best of Panama Competition and good fortune granted us a part of it, from the auction, to share with you soon.

But ahead of that, we can delight in these terroir-driven expressions of outstanding Los Alpes Geisha and perhaps aspire toward the Jansons’ dedication in our own cherished pursuits.

Swing by our roastery in Sharjah soon or shop these coffees here, now!

As ardent coffee lovers running a coffee business, we are careful to strike a balance between two key things — (1) what most of our clients and consumers currently understand and want with (2) what we strongly feel they deserve, which are the finest coffees — based on what we have learned and tasted throughout all our time as passionate coffee professionals. 

Some of those higher-end specialty coffees we have been sourcing for the past years and have found consistently impressive are from Janson Coffee, produced by the Janson family.

Janson Coffee was founded by brothers Michael, Carl, Ricardo, and Peter Janson in the 1990s, inspired by their father's dedication to hard work, exceptional quality, and love for their land. Their father was Carl Axel Janson, a Swedish immigrant, who acquired the property in 1941 and established a cattle farm with his wife, Peggy.

Kai had been based in the United States in the mid-2000s and working in coffee when he returned to their homestead in Panama to support his father, Carl, in conducting the family business. Jannette, meanwhile, grew up in Volcan but had been engaged in a corporate career abroad when she heeded the call to come back home in the late 2010s and follow in her father, Michael's footsteps. 

Kai considers his and Jannette’s generation as "keepers of the land" that his grandfather, father, and uncles have toiled to enrich and safeguard for future generations of Jansons and the families of workers who have come to rely on their farms as a healthy and viable source of livelihood. For Jannette, what truly makes Panama Geisha special is that it keeps families together and their family traditions intact. 

At our February 2023 Producer’s Talk, when Kai shared his thoughts on how he sees specialty coffee evolving, we gained insight into the impetus for the innovations at Janson Coffee that result in the fascinating flavor profiles in our cup. What he said also lightly touched on the consumer's role in shaping the future of specialty coffee. 

He told us, "It's an amazing ride — to see coffee grow and the energy around coffee… Our intention is, how do you create a coffee that is so fruity that you know it's a natural, and so powerful you know it's anaerobic, and so clean and gorgeous that it's like a classic washed — all in one cup, and at different points in the cup…if you're paying attention, you'll see that." He also mentioned that brewing plays a large part in upholding quality.

When we asked what's on the horizon for Janson Coffee, Kai shared that their goal is to keep raising the energy around coffee. We took this to mean: continuing to chase excellence in coffee quality and keeping everyone excited about it by creating genuine relationships and fun shared experiences with the coffee people they encounter.