Move Over, Espresso Martini — Houston’s Carajillo Is Here to Stay

Maven Coffee + Cocktails offers a superlative take on this simple but historic coffee cocktail

Houston is known to appreciate a good coffee cocktail. Here, espresso martinis are a common sip: Local diners fawn over 99-cent caffeinated cocktails at Citizen Montrose and down enough espresso martinis for Heights & Co. to keep them on tap. But there’s a new coffee cocktail in town that’s causing quite a buzz — the carajillo.

Typically made with just two ingredients — espresso and the Spanish, sugar-based Licor 43 — the carajillo is said to have originated in Spain, where it wasn’t uncommon for residents to resort to a shot of alcohol (likely brandy) and espresso for a caffeine boost. The official iced combination of Licor 43 and coffee came to Mexico in the 1940s, and despite once being considered a “poor man’s drink,” according to chef Nicolás G. “Nico” Baizan de Aldecoa, the cocktail made its rounds through Latin America. Only more recently, though, are cities in the U.S. seeming to catch on, with Houston being one of them. A handful of restaurants like Flora and Doris Metropolitan serve their own takes, but Maven Coffee + Cocktails is leading the drink’s renaissance.

The new coffee and cocktail lounge, which first debuted a stall in the Houston Astro baseball team’s home stadium Minute Maid Park, professes the cocktail to be its specialty. Eater Houston’s recent visit to its standalone cafe in Thompson Hotel (and surveys of other carajillos, to be sure), have proven they’re on to something.

The Maven team, made up of Astros pitcher Lance McCullers Jr., automotive industry entrepreneur Juan Carlos Martinez de Aldecoa, and chef Nicolás G. “Nico” Baizan de Aldecoa, has built upon their collective family histories and Spanish heritage to create a drink that is quickly becoming a Houston classic.

Nico Baizan de Aldecoa says the team was set on incorporating coffee-forward drinks that elicit a feeling of nostalgia — an easy feat considering that all of them grew up drinking carajillos in their Latin families. The de Aldecoas, who are cousins, are also part of a fourth-generation coffee legacy: Their family owns Cadeco Industries, a green coffee warehouse company — an extension of their great-great grandfather’s coffee business, which was established in Spain in the 1920s, later brought to Mexico in the 1930s, and then the U.S. in the 1980s. Still, Juan Carlos Martinez de Aldecoa says, “It was super important to us to not just make a typical carajillo.”

Maven Coffee + Cocktails

Adhering to some tradition, chef Nico led the charge, creating Maven’s carajillo with a combination of Licor 43 and the company’s signature cold brew coffee concentrate. Made with 100-percent Arabica beans and triple-filtered osmosis water — a combination that stems from a de Aldecoa family recipe, the Maven Coffee Co. coffee concentrate and espresso mix is combined with a balancing dash of bitters that brings out notes of chocolate, cherry, and plum. The mixture is then shaken and poured over a single, fat ice cube, a strategic decision that results in a slower melt and prevents the cocktail from getting too watery or diluted, Nico says. Atop it sits a creamy foam, a natural product of the coffee’s frothed fat and natural sugars, and a fanciful orange peel emanating a citrusy aroma that hits the nose before the luscious drink touches the lips.

Maven first launched the carjallios at McCuller’s stomping grounds — Minute Maid Park Stadium — and later in its stall in the Toyota Center, where espresso martinis are also served chilled or frozen. “It’s fun to be able to go to a baseball game or concert and get a hand-shaken cocktail the way we do it,” Juan Carlos Martinez de Aldecoa says. Maven’s newest outpost, located at the base of the Thompson Hotel, however, offers a more upscale experience, with espresso martinis poured tableside and topped with creamy mousse, a host of non-alcoholic coffee drinks made with freshly brewed espresso and coffee, and a concise menu of tapas-style dishes like croissant waffle-pressed truffle grilled cheeses and pastries sourced from Love Croissants bakery. In each setting, the team says the carajillo continues to be a favorite — even inspiring other riffs throughout the city, like at cocktail lounge Clarkwood, which uses the cold brew concentrate to create its espresso martinis and cinnamon-infused carajillos with macadamia liqueur, and dessert shop Crave Cupcakes’s limited edition carajillo cupcakes.

Though the Maven team declined to cite the specifics of its recipe, they note that the cold brew concentrate, which is sold wholesale to more than 300 restaurants in Houston and 800 nationwide, is key. The bottled concoction offers a robustly flavored ratio of coffee to ice and is ideal for dining establishments that want to serve coffee-based drinks and cocktails without buying the machinery to brew them on-site or resorting to vaporized or instant coffees, McCullers says. “The main thing we wanted to achieve was being knowledgeable and showing respect to not only our family’s past, but [we also wanted to] bring the most quality drinks, food, and coffee to Houston,” he says.

Maven

Now, based on their conversations with restaurant groups around the country, the Maven team says it seems like both the espresso martini and carajillo are here to stay. But while other cities, like San Francisco, have seen a major surge in interest, Houstonians are still getting acquainted with this caffeinated specialty. “Houston really hasn’t gotten a name for it,” Nico says, but Maven is on a mission for the carajillo to eclipse the espresso martini’s popularity.

“We’re hoping that we’re able to change the game, one coffee at a time,” Nico” Baizan de Aldecoa says.