When people think about Panamanian food, their minds usually go to ceviche, sancocho, fried fish, patacones, rice and beans. But there is another side of Panamanian food culture that tends to get much less attention: the country's traditional sweets.
And Panamanian candy is not quite what you might expect.
You won't necessarily find rows of brightly packaged chocolate bars and industrial candy everywhere. Traditional Panamanian sweets are much more connected to milk, coconut, sugar cane, fruit, rice, corn and slow cooking. Many are handmade, sold at roadside stalls, fairs, festivals and small family businesses, particularly as you travel into the interior of the country.
Some are chewy. Some are creamy. Some are crumbly. Some are intensely sweet. And some look so simple that you might wonder why anyone would get excited about them until you actually taste one.
Perhaps the most interesting thing about Panamanian sweets is that they often feel less like "candy" in the modern Western sense and more like little pieces of rural history that happen to be delicious.
Huevitos de leche: the little milk eggs
If you want to try one traditional Panamanian sweet, huevitos de leche are a fascinating place to start.
The name literally means "little milk eggs," although there is no egg involved in the basic recipe. They are traditionally made by slowly cooking milk and sugar until the mixture becomes thick enough to form into little balls. The finished sweets resemble small white or cream-colored eggs and are often wrapped individually in brightly colored tissue paper.
They are intensely sweet, creamy and somewhat reminiscent of dulce de leche.
There is also an interesting story behind them. They are sometimes associated with Coclé because that is one of the places where travelers commonly encounter them, but Panamanian reporting traces their origins to the Córdova family business in Chiriquí, where they were originally known as huevitos de faltriquera.
They have become particularly associated with fairs, patriotic celebrations and trips into the interior.
In other words, if you see a little roadside stand covered with colorful bags of strange-looking homemade sweets, those tiny milk balls may be one of the things sitting there.
And yes, you should probably buy some.
Cocadas: Panama goes all in on coconut
Coconut appears everywhere in tropical cooking, but Panama has a particular affection for turning it into sweets.
Cocadas are coconut-based candies that can be prepared in different ways, with variations involving sugar, honey and other ingredients. Some are light and chewy, while others become dense and almost caramel-like.
Traditional cocadas are particularly associated with the interior of Panama and with homemade sweet production. Contemporary Panamanian producers make several versions, including different preparations involving honey or sugar.
There are also darker versions, including cocada negra, which can incorporate ingredients such as cashew seeds.
The great thing about cocadas is that they taste unmistakably tropical. There is no pretending they are European chocolate truffles or American supermarket candy. They taste like coconut, sugar and sunshine.
Manjar blanco: deceptively simple
Then there is manjar blanco, another classic of Panamanian traditional sweets.
At its simplest, the ingredients are remarkably ordinary: milk, sugar and starch such as cornstarch. What makes the sweet special is the cooking process. The mixture has to be cooked and stirred until it reaches the right consistency.
Traditional producers in places such as Coclé have been making these sweets for generations, and manjar blanco remains one of the products commonly sold alongside cocadas, huevitos de leche and bocadillos.
This is an important characteristic of Panamanian sweets: the ingredient list can be incredibly simple while the preparation is anything but.
Milk plus sugar doesn't sound particularly exotic.
But cook it slowly, get the texture right and suddenly you have something that people have been making and buying for generations.
Bocadillos: fruit transformed into candy
Panama also has a wonderful tradition of turning fruit into concentrated sweets.
Bocadillos can be made from fruit such as guava, pineapple, nance, passion fruit and seasonal fruits.
Guava is particularly familiar throughout Latin America, but Panamanian versions can have a distinctly homemade character.
Instead of biting into fresh fruit, you're getting something thicker, sweeter and more concentrated. It is almost like taking the essence of the fruit and turning it into a little edible block.
And because Panama has such extraordinary tropical fruit diversity, the possibilities are much more interesting than simply chocolate, caramel and strawberry.
Bienmesabe: the mysterious one
One of the more intriguing traditional sweets is bienmesabe.
The name itself means something along the lines of "tastes good to me", which is a fairly confident name for a dessert.
Panamanian bienmesabe is traditionally associated with ingredients including milk, raspadura and cinnamon, although recipes vary. It has historically been particularly associated with parts of the interior, including Chiriquí and Coclé.
It is not always as easy to find as some of the better-known traditional sweets. A 2017 report described it as becoming relatively scarce compared with other traditional products, although producers in places such as Antón continued making it and customers continued seeking it out.
That makes trying it somewhat more interesting.
You aren't simply eating dessert.
You're eating something that belongs to a tradition that has gradually become harder to find.
Suspiros: don't expect what you think
The word suspiro means "sigh," and it is another traditional Panamanian sweet.
But there is a potential trap for travelers.
When you hear "suspiro," you might imagine a soft meringue dessert. Panamanian suspiros can instead refer to small baked sweet rolls or pieces made from ingredients such as cornstarch or cassava starch, egg, sugar and butter.
They are delicate and crumbly rather than being simply a bowl of meringue.
Traditional sweet producers commonly sell suspiros alongside cocadas, manjar blanco, bocadillos and huevitos de leche.
It is another example of why eating traditional food while travelling is so much more interesting than relying entirely on dishes you already recognize.
Sometimes the name sounds familiar.
The actual thing is completely different.
Cabanga: one of the more unusual combinations
If you're looking for something genuinely different, keep an eye out for cabanga.
Traditional cabanga combines coconut, green papaya and honey.
It is exactly the kind of sweet that demonstrates how traditional Panamanian desserts often revolve around ingredients that were locally available rather than expensive imported ingredients.
Coconut.
Papaya.
Sugar or honey.
Slow cooking.
The result is a very different experience from opening a package of chocolate.
Mamallena: don't let the name fool you
Another traditional favorite is mamallena, a sweet made from bread and other simple ingredients.
It belongs to the broader family of homemade Panamanian desserts that developed around ingredients people could readily obtain: bread, rice, milk, sugar, raisins and spices.
It is the sort of dessert that makes perfect sense when you understand traditional home cooking.
Nothing needs to be wasted.
Yesterday's bread can become today's dessert.
And suddenly something ordinary becomes something comforting.
Sopa borracha: dessert with a little attitude
Then things get more interesting.
Sopa borracha, literally "drunken soup," is a traditional Panamanian dessert involving sponge cake soaked in sweet syrup and alcohol. It is associated particularly with celebrations and special occasions.
It sounds bizarre until you understand what it is.
Think of a soft cake absorbing a sweet, spiced syrup until it becomes incredibly moist and rich.
And yes, there is alcohol involved.
This isn't the candy you grab while waiting for a bus.
This is the sort of dessert that belongs at a celebration.
Raspao: Panama's answer to the tropical heat
Not every Panamanian sweet comes wrapped in paper.
On a brutally hot afternoon, you may encounter one of Panama's most refreshing treats: raspao.
It's essentially shaved ice covered with flavored syrup, often with condensed milk added.
The combination is almost ridiculously simple, but when you're sweating in Panama City, walking around Casco Viejo or spending an afternoon near the coast, a cold mountain of shaved ice suddenly seems like one of the greatest culinary inventions in human history.
And unlike some of the traditional sweets that require slow cooking, raspao is all about immediate gratification.
Cold.
Sweet.
Sticky.
Gone in five minutes.
The roadside candy culture
Perhaps the best place to understand Panamanian sweets isn't a fancy restaurant.
It's the highway.
As you travel away from Panama City and into the interior, roadside stalls selling homemade sweets and baked goods become part of the landscape. Traditional sweets are particularly associated with provinces such as Coclé, Chiriquí, Los Santos and Herrera.
You may see containers filled with cocadas, little packages of huevitos de leche, blocks of bocadillo, manjar blanco, suspiros and other homemade products.
This is part of the fun of travelling through Panama.
You're not necessarily walking into a specialized candy store.
Sometimes you're stopping beside a highway because you saw a little table covered with things you've never seen before.
And that's exactly when you should ask:
"¿Qué es esto?"
What is this?
Then buy one.
Some of Panama's best sweets are disappearing
There is also a more serious story behind these candies.
Traditional sweets don't automatically survive just because people like them.
Recipes take time. Many require manual preparation and long cooking. Modern consumers have access to enormous quantities of inexpensive packaged food, while fewer younger people may learn the old techniques.
Panamanian reporting has documented concern about some traditional sweets becoming harder to find, particularly products such as bienmesabe. At the same time, artisan producers continue making traditional products and selling them to travelers and locals.
One particularly interesting example is an artisan producer in Guaca, Chiriquí, whose documented history traces the business back to recipes learned from an uncle beginning in the 1960s. The business continues producing cocadas, bienmesabe, manjar, suspiros, huevitos de leche and bocadillos.
That is more than a candy business.
It is culinary inheritance.
So what does Panamanian candy actually taste like?
If you are accustomed to North American candy aisles, Panamanian traditional sweets can feel completely different.
There is generally less emphasis on chocolate and artificial flavors and much more emphasis on milk, coconut, fruit, sugar cane, cinnamon and simple ingredients.
The flavors tend to be rich and sweet rather than intensely sour or artificially fruity.
Coconut appears again and again.
Milk appears again and again.
Sugar appears everywhere.
And fruit gets transformed into concentrated little explosions of flavor.
The textures are equally interesting. You can find creamy milk sweets, chewy coconut candies, crumbly baked sweets, dense fruit pastes and cold shaved ice.
It is almost like Panama took the ingredients available in a tropical countryside kitchen and asked:
"How many different ways can we turn these into dessert?"
The answer appears to be: quite a lot.
The best part is the hunt
For a traveler, traditional Panamanian candy is less about finding one famous national chocolate bar and more about discovering regional specialties.
A sweet you encounter in Chiriquí may not be exactly the same as one you find in Coclé. Family recipes vary. Ingredients change. Some sweets are strongly associated with particular holidays or festivals, while others are everyday roadside treats.
That makes them perfect backpacker food.
You don't need a reservation.
You don't need a guide.
You don't need to understand an enormous menu.
You just need to see something strange, point at it and ask what it is.
Then take a bite.
Because sometimes the most memorable food in Panama isn't the giant plate of seafood or the perfect ceviche.
Sometimes it's a tiny brightly wrapped ball of milk and sugar bought from a roadside stand somewhere between one destination and the next.
And you eat it while looking out the bus window at the mountains, jungle and villages passing by.
That's when Panamanian candy starts tasting like more than candy. It starts tasting like Panama.