Coffee? Make mine Dota Select, pure Costa Rica

Story by Tony Tedeschi
naturaltraveler.com

In the lush mountains that define the Central Valley of Costa Rica, there is an area called Dota, where some of the world's finest coffee is grown and processed. Locus of this activity is a tiny town called Santa Maria de Dota, about two hours south of the capital city of San José. With nearby towns called San Cristobal, San Pablo, San Ignacio, San Gabriel, San Lorenzo, San Marcos, the region is known as La Ruta de los Santos, and if the saints are, in fact, hovering here in some nether land or parallel universe, it is surely the aroma of roasting coffee beans they find irresistible. Is there anything that quite measures up to that aroma? People who don't drink coffee swoon over it.

I visited Santa Maria de Dota with Matias Zeledon, founder and director of a company called Down to Earth. Matias is a friend of long standing and one of those entrepreneurs who recognize opportunities, turn them into something viable, but never lose sight of where the resources are being generated and the need to keep them viable. The motto he has chosen for Down to Earth is "Started by Mother Nature, finished by hand." He markets food, paper, jewelry, health products, crafts and other items via the Web at www.godowntoearth.org. One of the reasons his company is a "dot org" is that every sale includes an opportunity for the buyer to designate 6% of the net as a contribution to one of four Costa Rica foundations that are involved in conservation of the country's remarkable biology. One of the products Matias retails is Dota coffee, single-origin, pure and unblended.

"This is simply the best coffee in the world," he says. "It's a combination of climate, precipitation, soil composition and the care involved in every step of the process, from the tender loving care of the small farmers who grow the plants to the way the beans are handled at the cooperative."


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