I'm an American and I was highly confused, too. The problem, I think, is that all three words of the phrase are ambiguous, in ways that compound the confusion. I've never heard "downing" used in the context of taking something you hold in your hands, and putting it down on the table. We always say we "put it down" for that. We reserve "downing" for somewhat more aggressive contexts. That amplifies an ambiguity on the word "their": does "their" mean the programmers themselves, or the Pepsi consultants? Finally, the word "tools" is being used here in a metaphorical sense. We Americans know well the term "programmer's tools", but you don't really hold compilers and debuggers in your hands, do you? So the phrase takes the analogy that compilers and debuggers are like hammers and saws, and extends it to say they are putting them down on the table as if they were hammers and saws. Only it doesn't say they've put them down, it says they've downed them. And it doesn't say "programmer's tools", it just says "tools", which might conceivably have a couple of completely different idiomatic meanings: male body parts, or people who are cluelessly obnoxious.
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I'm an American and I was highly confused, too. The problem, I think, is that all three words of the phrase are ambiguous, in ways that compound the confusion. I've never heard "downing" used in the context of taking something you hold in your hands, and putting it down on the table. We always say we "put it down" for that. We reserve "downing" for somewhat more aggressive contexts. That amplifies an ambiguity on the word "their": does "their" mean the programmers themselves, or the Pepsi consultants? Finally, the word "tools" is being used here in a metaphorical sense. We Americans know well the term "programmer's tools", but you don't really hold compilers and debuggers in your hands, do you? So the phrase takes the analogy that compilers and debuggers are like hammers and saws, and extends it to say they are putting them down on the table as if they were hammers and saws. Only it doesn't say they've put them down, it says they've downed them. And it doesn't say "programmer's tools", it just says "tools", which might conceivably have a couple of completely different idiomatic meanings: male body parts, or people who are cluelessly obnoxious.