Meet Luisa Mejia

We were lucky to catch up with Luisa Mejia recently and have shared our conversation below.

Luisa, thank you so much for making time for us. We’ve always admired your ability to take risks and so maybe we can kick things off with a discussion around how you developed your ability to take and bear risk?

Being born in Colombia, I had to learn at a very young age to deal with risks and with fear. It is not a secret that our country has been hit by violence for many years. At the time when I was living in the country, I kept a strong faith and always felt somehow protected. However when the fear doesn’t come from the outside, but from the inside, with self-doubt and fear of failure, I always ask myself two questions, what is the worst that can happen if I do it?, what do I lose if I don’t ? I always think to myself the only failure will be if I don’t take a first step

Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?

I am a scientist and a coffee farmer. Through my work of producing high quality, ethically grown coffee in our small family farms in Colombia, I create bridges between two worlds. Germany and Colombia, consumers and producers and nature and economy.
Originally, I studied Biomedical Engineering in Colombia and moved many years ago to Germany where I work as a scientist in Medical Informatics, developing digital technologies to improve the lives of children suffering of cancer and their families.
My other hat is my role as a change maker and entrepreneur. I am the founder of Cafe del Cielo, a premium coffee brand making a radical change. With our products we create an elevated experience for coffee lovers who enjoy high quality coffee in their morning ritual and want to make a difference in the world.
Although born in Bogota, my roots are deep in the coffee region of Colombia. Playing hide and seek in the coffee farms. Waking up every morning to birds singing and the smell of the coffee blossoms (think of the smell of Jasmin) are some of the loveliest memories of my childhood.
Many years after developing my career in Germany and needing to find some balance in life, my visit to Colombia in 2017 was a life turning event. I fell in love with a tiny coffee farm overlooking the magnificence of the Andes mountains.
After 6 years of hard work, we have transformed that tiny farm using regenerative agriculture. Little by little we notice a real change, birds and other animals, some of them endangered species have been returning to our farm. Huge vibrant trees, coffee plants with birds and other animals living in harmony with nature. A place where nature thrives in its genuine beauty. Our employees are paid a fair wage, are entitled to have holidays, and have retirement and healthcare plans and can live a life that is not possible for most coffee farmers in Colombia and other countries.
But to produce the best possible coffee in harmony with nature and offering the best possible conditions to our workers we have a high cost of production. So, to sustain this model we had to follow a difficult path. As a small farm we dared to take the supply chain into our hands by exporting, importing, and selling our coffee without intermediaries to Europe.
Our aim goes beyond selling coffee. We strongly believe in the power of nature. We want to live in a world where productive ecosystems work in harmony with nature, not against it. Our vision is not to purchase more land but to work with other neighbors and be successful together. Empowering them to sell their coffee without intermediaries and to transform their farms into regenerative, encouraging a social and ecological transformation.
Our style of coffee is intentionally simple, with minimal influence to let the natural and honest flavors of the terroir shine through. In Germany our home is in the city of Kiel, way up in the north by the sea. In Colombia our home is in the mountains of the Andes, in Filandia Quindio. We are a female-owned business contributing to fight inequality, poverty, climate change and biodiversity loss.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

Specific to my journey, I appreciate the following three soft skills that brought me to where I am
1. I almost never accept “this is not possible”. If I truly believe in something, I will go the extra mile to make it happen regardless of all the obstacles, but always acting in alignment to my values. I believe that if one puts in enough energy anything can be possible, but one must be always aware that there will be a price.
2. Speaking about the price a dream may have, very often this price is paid in the form of effort and work. I will not say hard work, I would call this Intensity of work. Once I have an idea and I explore a plan to realize it, a clarity arrives pointing me to where I want to go, and in this very moment I am laser focused. I always ask myself how those ideas align with my own purpose. Once I am aware of this alignment, I get synchronized and very energized to make this idea a reality, so that most of the time even it doesn’t feel like work.
3. Empathy, I am a big believer of the life-centered economy, where the planet does not revolve around humans only, but around all the beings on the earth. I believe that we are all dependent upon another, interconnected with the people, with our nature, with our ecosystems and the animals who live in them and thus responsible for our impact. Everything in Café del Cielo is a result of an exercise of empathy.

One of our goals is to help like-minded folks with similar goals connect and so before we go we want to ask if you are looking to partner or collab with others – and if so, what would make the ideal collaborator or partner?

We are searching for purpose driven collaborations with brands that are interested in moving away from the business-as-usual approach. Brands that strive for a greater appreciation of coffee. We would love to partner with brands that have the courage to act now and be the change in the world. Brands that know that good things take time and must be enjoyed with intention. We are looking for fine dining restaurants, cafés, companies and small boutique hotels striving to give an extraordinary customer experience. Coffee is an essential part of the overall guest /employee experience and an opportunity to create a deep and elevated impression of their brand‘s signature. Coffee is one of the touchpoints that count most when it comes to inspiring loyal guests by taking them on a unique and fascinating journey inspired entirely by the „Terroir to Table „philosophy. We can design a coffee experience crafted for their brand, we are happy to receive any inquiries through the email [email protected].

Contact Info:

Image Credits

Hernan Avelino, Studio 586
Isabel Wallace, Align studio

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