After the founding of the Specialty Coffee Association of Panama (SCAP), producers in the Boquete and Volcán regions of Panama, with the cooperation of the Specialty Coffee Association of the Americas (SCAA), began a movement to create a system for having their country's coffee evaluated using international cupping standards.
Then, with the cooperation of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Panama Tourism Board, the first Best of Panama (BOP) coffee quality competition was held in 1996.