In 1992, Erik and Lina Runestam, a brother and sister in Sweden, along with their friend Christoffer Hogstrom, wrote a message and partially burned it to make the letter look like an old dip pen message written on parchment. Then they sealed the bottle and threw it into the sea from the coastal town of Hunnebostrand.
Last month, Leonard Pearson of Panama found it. He wrote to the brother and sister 22 years after they sent the bottle on its long journey. BBC News reports:
Erik remembers being excited about sending the message in the bottle.
He told Newsbeat: "Our dad told us we should wait until the wind was blowing off land because it might go as far as England, so we were a bit excited about that.
"It would have travelled north of Denmark, through the English Channel to cross the Atlantic. Our hopes weren't that high to even get to England."
Erik had lost touch with his childhood friend Christoffer - they hadn't spoken for 10 years. So Erik was very surprised when Christoffer sent a photo of the letter with a reply from Panama.
The letter - dated 6 November 2014 - reads: "Bueno dias. I have found this message in a bottle at Playa del Dragos, Bocas del Toro.
"I used Google Translate, and it seems the message is in Swedish? I hope that the address is correct and that this letter reaches the kids who sent the message."