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 María 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 María 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."

Now granted, a product's marketer can be expected to harbor a substantial degree of bias, but I have had this coffee and while one can never be sure what makes a food product more attractive to any given individual, it is certainly at the top of my list – and I have tasted just about every particular bean offered by Starbucks, which incidentally, is a major buyer from this cooperative. Dota Select coffee is possessed of that richness that is impossible to describe in words. It evinces those nuances of additional natural flavors, chocolaty and nutty for example, that wine connoisseurs always like to describe as "finish," "lingering on the back of my tongue," etc. The fact that it was voted Best in Show at the 2001 meeting of the Specialty Coffee Association of America came as no surprise to me.

As you approach Santa María de Dota, you get an immediate sense of community. Tiny farms layer the hillsides, all displaying a sense of care, most less than 10 acres, some at topographical inclinations that seem to defy gravity. More than 700 family farms are members of the coffee cooperative.

Coasting into Santa María at midday, we stopped for a comida casera (as in home-cooked meal) at a restaurant called La Casona de Sara (as in Sara's house). The menu was . . . well . . . we were escorted into the kitchen, where Sara was busy over her wood-burning stove, stirring pots of simmering concoctions: rice, beans, fish, an aromatic beef stew. Wooden bowls sat atop a table, their contents including leafy salad greens, deep red tomatoes, avocados. There were bowls of recently cooked plantains, yams, potatoes; and a plate of hot tortillas to wrap around things. We opted for a selection of each in a platter for a communal meal, adding freshly squeezed raspberry juice whipped to a frothy head. All of the foregoing for the equivalent of $3 U.S. per person.

It begged some coffee for a finish. That we had at the home of Matias's cousins, who have been living here and growing coffee on their seven-acre farm for generations. We showed up unannounced. ("They're family," Matias had said.) The welcome was as warm as I had expected in this place where, clearly, community counted for something truly significant. Santos and Aracelly Córdoba were our hosts, he 80 years old, she 75. Aracelly brewed us some coffee and served it with tortillas and cheese, along with sweet rolls. I had had the coffee before, in my home, but sharing it with friendly hosts adds a dimension to its effect as a communal enabler. The hospitality of the Córdobas reminded me of my childhood, growing up in one of those ethnic enclaves in New York City – mine Italian – where if my grandmother could see empty seats at the Sunday table during the big pasta lunch, then there were not enough guests.

We were soon joined by Santos's brother, Roberto, who at 95 is the oldest man in Santa María. Beto looked spry, spoke with animation and laced you with a toothless smile. He has never worn shoes and started picking coffee beans on this property during the early part of the last century. His grandfather fought in one of the country's infrequent wars during the middle of the previous century. Talk about living history.

The cooperative is a very impressive operation, state-of-the-art-equipment, a business driven by a working, environmentally friendly mission statement. After all, the people with the vested interest in this operation live here – what a concept. The drying ovens, for example, are fired by coffee plant husks, eliminating the need for other fuels. They are temperature-controlled by computers to the 10th of a degree and can be operated remotely via the Internet. This system will soon be able to throw off enough energy to provide all the electricity for the operation. But coffee is the story here and I was standing alongside a bin that had waves of beans off into the far reaches of a large room; deep, too.

"This bin goes down another seven meters," said my host, Roberto Mata Naranjo, general manager of the coop.

"As in 21 feet?"

"Yes," he responded, "300,000 pounds of coffee beans."

Thirty-five percent of the output is destined to Starbucks locations everywhere. As a testament to the value of the product in the marketplace, sales of future productions are spoken for three years out.

It was a revelation watching all the wheels turning, the belts moving, the ovens blasting, but again, it was that aroma that insinuated itself into my consciousness. Yes, another cup of coffee was in order, at a table in the conference room and again it was a delight. Would I be drinking this much coffee at home? No. But, hey, would you walk away from one more glass of cabernet at a chateau in Bordeaux?

Fortunately, you don't have to travel as far as I did to get the main ingredient to that wonderful morning concoction (along with a fine selection of other products), although the trip is highly recommended. All you need do is click on: www.godowntoearth.org or the green ad in the right-hand column of the home page and some wonderful bags of Down to Earth's Dota Select coffee, roasted specifically for you after your order is placed and inscribed with your name will arrive at your doorstep in a matter of days.

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