Today we’d like to introduce you to Coral Martinez.
Coral, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
So here’s is how La Tazita was born: My journey began in 2023 during an anniversary trip with my husband to Austin. We stopped at a coffee shop before heading back to Houston and we talked about all that we had been through the last 10 years or so. I was looking around enjoying the moment when out of nowhere the thought of running my own little coffee shop creeped into my heart. I mentioned it to babe and that was that. I was in the restroom getting ready to go when I found myself talking to my Tia Mento ( short for Sacramento.. her entire full name was long lol ). She was telling me that I shoud go for it. That I should do it y que me iba a ir bien. Que le hechara ganas and that one day I would have a place of my own just like I was envisioning it. My tia mento was my moms aunt who lived with us since I was just a toddler. She walked me to my very first day of school because my mom did not have the privilege to miss work for those days. She taught me how to make sweet cafecitos to go with my pan de basurita ( eventually i learned it was called a Concha lol). Tia Mento was everybody’s tia, but she raised my siblings and I and was always there for us when mom and dad couldn’t. We confided in her and she always gave us the benefit of the doubt. Her passing didn’t really hit me until that that moment. I cried, alot and held my heart because I couldn’t believe what I was feeling. I still can’t and I’m sure only those who have experienced the same thing will understand me.
Anyways, I walked out and told babe and once we made it home I also told my parents. They were so supprtive of my dream! So babe and i took leap of faith and found a fancy home espresso machine and charged it to a credit card. Oh it was on. I would come home from work and experiment making drinks. I watched videos about coffee beans, how to pull shots and where to purchase syrups. Eventually i had my coworkers taste test what i was making. Afterall, they were teachers and they knew all about coffee! In mid-April we held our first popup, on our front yard. Our neighbors came out to support and provide feedback. Eventually I started selling after work and things just started to take off from there. Since then our syrups changed, our beans our different along with many other things. However my mission is still the same, to bring a coffee shop experience that my community can identify with. Where we can bring our familias to chismear and catch up over cafecitos…cafecitos that are true to their name and we can all order without feeling intimidated. So easy our mamas can order on their own. I am hoping that one day I will have a place for you to walk in and enjoy a tazita of whatever it is that that someone special in your life desires to sip on. In the mean time maybe a trailer will do or maybe we will continue to show up at your special events. Quien sabe, como decia mi tia, “Uno pone y dios dispone”.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
The struggles we have faced are financial struggles like almost all business face. I worked as a teacher aide with a very small paycheck. I could only invest so much in creating La Tazita but I found a way to make it work. Working full time and trying to run a small business while being a mom and wife is definitely not for the weak. I recently just quit my job at the Intermediate school I was working at for 4 years. I did this so I could focus and dedicate my time 100% to my business. We were about to sign a contract for a trailer just before Hurricane Beryl hit us. We are still dealing with the insurance, have a damaged roof, my kids rooms are damaged and our fence is still partially down. So, we had to put the trailer on hold unfortunately. But things happen for a reason right? Without the struggles I don’t think we would appreciate every milestone we have reached.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
I would like people to know that we have poured so much love into building La Tazita. We have dedicated the least year or so into creating something our community feels welcomed by, something that is familiar to them and their families. We aim to create recipes that capture the flavors we promote. We are proud of each of our lattes, because we do more than just add pumps of vanilla and call a latte a vanilla latte. We explore different combinations of syrups and sauces in order to offer something true to its name. Every single flavored latte we have offered has been been taste tested by family, coworkers or neighbors not just by us. La Tazita was and is trully “raised” by a village. We are aware everyone has different taste buds and we people’s feedback in order to merge our samples into one perfect flavored latte. But of course we are always willing to tweak every order to our customers liking. We hope that anyone who has the chance to try our drinks knows hat we truly love what we do and value their support.
In terms of your work and the industry, what are some of the changes you are expecting to see over the next five to ten years?
In the future we see ourselves owning our own coffee shop where our customers can bring their families and talk for hours. They will be able to catch up as long as want because they will have a comfortable place to do so. We see us being in areas where big chain companies are not willing to invest in because of “the demographics”. We will bring the cafecitos to our communities so they don’t have to travel out of their areas across town to get a local coffee shop experience. And who knows, we may become mobile instead with the trailer we wanted! We also want to continue catering events, especially to our local school districts. I think that teachers will play a big role in our coffee shop, im not exactly sure how but I just know that they will!
Pricing:
- Lattes $4-$7
- Coffee cart catering $270 and up
- Bottled coffee cooler rental $215 and up
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/la.tazita.tx?igsh=amc4ejhwNmdobHps
- Facebook: La Tazita (if it’s pink, that’s us!)
