Today we visited Coopedota Café located in Santa María de Dota. We were given a tour of the plantation, a lesson on how to make the perfect cup of coffee, and were able to trust some ourselves after the tour. Coopedota is a cooperative meaning that they have many people in partnership with their company. To be specific, Dota has 900 out of 1200 families in the valley included in their cooperative. These families are involved in the production process of coffee at the plantation.

In being in a cooperative, there are many advantages and disadvantages. Some advantages include that fact that you have a say in what the company does if you are in a cooperative. You are able to vote and have your voice heard in the company. It is a democracy. On the other hand, this can be negative because as more and more families become involved in the company, the harder it becomes to come to a consensus or make important decisions. Along with this, if one family is creating very high quality product and another isn’t, they are still considered equals.

The community of Santa María de Dota would be much different without the cooperative because of how involved the families have become in it. The cooperative really values the idea of giving back to the community; they have built old folks homes and recreational facilities for children. Without it, there wouldn’t be an as tight knit community as there is now. Finally, my most favorite preparation of coffee would have to be a latte. A couple years ago, my dad bought an espresso machine for our house. After playing with the buttons and following recipes for a bit, I really I am an espresso lover. I really enjoy how strong it is, however I do prefer some milk and vanilla flavoring to give it a bit of a boost.