Costa Rica Dota El Vapor

The El Vapor is a special selection of coffee grown in the heart of Costa Rica's famed Tarrazu region in the town of Santa Maria de Dota known for its award-winning coffee. Elegant and delicately sweet, this Costa Rican provides gentle fruit notes of honeydew melon and red grape while undertones of chocolate and walnut contribute to the aroma and cup. This is also an eco-pulped coffee in that the cherries are taken through a de-pulper that uses considerably less water than traditional washed coffees.

Santa Maria is home to one of Costa Rica's finest cooperatives, CoopeDota. Recognized as the world's first certified carbon-neutral coffee exporter, it's far more than a supplier of superb coffee. Rather, it represents an amazing industry that has integrated social services and environmental protections while producing some of the highest quality coffee available in Costa Rica.

The cooperative was founded in 1960 by 96 producers in the Dota Valley region and has since grown to more than 800 members who collectively harvest 65,000 bushels of coffee each year. Members take their coffee to a shared wet mill in Santa Maria and use their power as a cooperative to negotiate the sale of coffee at a fair price.

CoopeDota's farms stretch deep into central Costa Rica. While they produce a significant volume of coffee, they also invest their efforts to cultivate exceptional microlots. The El Vapor is one of those exceptional coffees.

CoopeDota provides members with educational opportunities in addition to milling services. However, its outreach extends far beyond processing: coffee by-products are used to fuel the mechanical drying guardiolas (mechanical driers) and reduce water use during processing by relying on eco-pulpers. Further, the cooperative manages trash pickup in the city of Santa Maria de Dota and routinely repurposes waste into renewable forms of energy.