The Coffee Artist Juliana Zeledon

River that provides water for Down To Earth farm, Providencia, Dota, Costa Rica

The Coffee Artist: A Personal Memoir

I have grown up around coffee.To my family, Down To Earth has been a big part of our lives.

By Juliana Zeledon “We are far from a big company and even farther from a cash cow,” my dad used to say, “but we feel satisfied to see how our principles turn Down to Earth into a company we can be proud of. If you cannot do good while making money, then it is not worth it.”

My father died on September 10th, but his legacy lives on in the company he built, the level of integrity he instilled in my mother and me and the principles that guide all of us who are now responsible for producing and delivering the special product he created.

Our family has worked in coffee since the late 1880s. My dad’s Uncle, Yanuario, worked with coffee his whole life. My uncle never had children, so he considered my dad as his own. He’d take my dad to his farm beginning when he was eight years old, set him on the hood of his Land Rover, and say, “son, one day all of this will be yours.” When my dad was 17, he started college at the University of Costa Rica and chose the career that was expected of him: agriculture. But he quit less than a year in. He wanted to “find himself,” so he moved to upstate New York to study communications and media arts at the State University of New York in upstate Fredonia, where he specialized in documentary production. However, finding himself eventually led to an “early middle life

crisis” when he turned 40 and realized he wanted to come back to his roots: coffee. Nonetheless, he never regretted his years working in advertising, it gave him a different perspective going into the coffee business. He saw the customer side of the industry and used his marketing skills not just to create a brand but one that meant something to the world.

Social Responsibility I have grown up around coffee. To my family, Down To Earth has been a big part of our lives. My mom has worked in the accounting and administrative side of the company for the last 20 years. And I grew up working in the coffee shop and conducting tours during summers from elementary through high school. I started working fulltime in November 2017, managing to work and go to college at the same time.

At Down to Earth we project our purchasing into social action, our production into environmental protection, and our quality into a guarantee. Another thing that differentiates us from other bigger producers is that we do everything ourselves. We have total control of our quality. The coffee industry usually consists of intermediaries. It is very rare to encounter another company that does everything: plants-roasts-sells, the full cycle. By doing everything ourselves we guarantee the quality is going to be exactly what we want, which is only manageable with total control.

I’d rather be known as the guy who sold the best cup of coffee you have ever had,” my dad always said, “rather than the guy who sells the most coffee.”

My dad decided to generously donate his body to the University of Costa Rica for medical research. This altruistic gift will teach future generations of doctors, nurses and other medical professionals. He wanted his death to mean as much as his life did to us. We’re very grateful he is going to touch many lives, even in death.

Scarlet Tanagers Photo by Janet Safris