A conversation with Brew Tulum’s Laura McNamara

Long ago, Laura McNamara was a college student who saw coffee as a means to a caffeine-fueled end, and she’d grab whatever she could get her hands on without paying all that much attention to what it actually tasted like. Her husband, A.J. Juarez, was even less of a coffee drinker, rarely touching the stuff; when he finally did, he figured the powdered, instant versions would suffice.

Now, roughly a decade after falling deeply in love with specialty coffee—in particular, specialty coffee grown in Mexico—the two have dedicated their lives to sharing their passion with coffee drinkers from Mexico’s Yucatan region to St. Louis with their brand, Brew Tulum. Their tastings and education seminars, which are much like a wine course, have quickly garnered a reputation as one of the most thrilling windows into the brewed beverage, giving participants a deep dive into various cultivation and brew methods, as well as flavor profiles and various preparations.

McNamara and Juarez will soon be offering these experiences, as well as traditional Mexican cuisine, in a forthcoming storefront. (Currently, they offer beans online and experiences at The Leona event space, as well as in-home and special events tastings). Until then, McNamara has been reflecting on her and her husband’s journeys into the coffee world and how they hope to instill that same love in those who experience all that Brew Tulum has to offer.

Your road to becoming so passionate about specialty coffee has been quite winding. How did you go from a casual drinker to someone who lives and breathes great coffee? Like many people, I started drinking coffee in college to stay awake for late-night cramming sessions, but that changed after I graduated early and started traveling. Coffee really first stood out to me in Vietnam, which is one of the [world’s] top producers of robusta coffee, and I toured coffee farms there and saw rolling hills with coffee plants blossoming. It was really gorgeous. On the streets, I would get Vietnamese coffee and remember tasting it and feeling like it was much better than anything I’d ever tried in college. I had such limited knowledge about it, but I attributed that to the fact that I was getting closer to the source, so it was fresher. Later, I ended up in Guatemala, which was the first time I had coffee that tasted like it smelled; I could just smell all of these wonderful flavors, and it actually tasted like that. I remember thinking, What did I just drink, and why does this taste so much better?

That experience really raised your expectations for the coffee you’d find when you moved to Mexico. What happened when you first moved there? I was really excited, because Mexico shares a mountain range with Guatemala and has the same volcanic soils, so I thought I would have amazing coffee. To my dismay—at least where I was staying in Chihuahua, and this was more than a decade ago—anything from the U.S. was revered… [and] Nescafé was served as the crown jewel. I traveled to the Riviera Maya, which is a big tourist area, and I was met with the same thing: There was Nescafé everywhere. I was like, “Guys, where is the Mexican coffee? I know you grow it.” Finally, I stumbled upon this guy who promoted himself as having specialty-grade Mexican coffee coming out of Vera Cruz. I started consuming his coffee and finally found what I was looking for.

Your husband, A.J. Juarez, is a passionate advocate for Mexican coffee, but you say it wasn’t always that way. What lit that spark? When we first met, he didn’t drink coffee, but I would always drink it around him. I loved cafe de olla, brewed with cinnamon, cacao, piloncillo, and clove. One day, A.J. said he was in the mood for coffee… I called up Mario, the gentleman I was getting my coffee from, and he rolls up on a dirt bike with a skull on the front; he has a leather jacket and ponytail and hands me this unmarked black bag. A.J. was like, “What did you just order?” I pulled out my French press, made him a cup, and he took a sip and his face just lit up. It was a lightbulb moment for him, because he had never been introduced to what Mexico had to offer. As he delved into it, he learned that Mexico is actually one of the top exporters of specialty-grade organic coffee in the world, but most of it goes to Japan, which is willing to pay top dollar for those qualities. After that, it’s Australia, New Zealand, Europe, and then the U.S., which is crazy because we are right next door. When Mario told us he was selling his business, A.J. called him up, and the next thing I knew we were buying his roasting equipment. I didn’t know what we were going to do because we knew nothing about roasting coffee.

You’ve described the steep learning curve, both in terms of learning how to roast and figuring out how to get your coffee to consumers—most hotels and restaurants weren’t willing to spend the extra money to carry specialty coffee, and you didn’t have a database of customers willing to buy directly. How did you get from there to what has become Brew Tulum? We realized that we had to open a shop so that we could go directly to consumers and get a cup in their hands. We opened an original location [in Quintana Roo], then found another opportunity in Tulum. While that space was being built out, we started doing our coffee tasting experiences, which really took off. Things were going well, and we were thinking of opening another location in another part of Mexico, but the pandemic hit; after nine months of weathering it there with no business, we came to St. Louis to stay with my family. We needed to do something here, so we started roasting and shipping beans back to Mexico and doing pop-ups and farmers’ markets here. [In 2022], we found the space on Delmar, and things were going really well until we had to abruptly shut down [because of health concerns in the building]. We were able to jump into the tail end of the farmers’ market season. We have been doing caterings and pop-ups and have had a really wonderful, collaborative experience with The Leona, which is where we are doing our coffee experiences. 

What’s next for Brew Tulum? We originally had our hearts set on reopening in the same area [in the Delmar Makers District], because of how the community received us and rallied in support of us after we closed. But we had another thing pop up in another historically important area of St. Louis that we will announce soon. In the meantime, we are working hard to make sure that the space we were in before gets properly remediated. We’re also doing our coffee tastings at The Leona and have our online store. We’re very mobile, so we would also do our tastings in someone’s house and are even getting inquiries about doing coffee bars at weddings. We have gone so far down this path, and it’s something we have passion for, so that’s what keeps us going. We love sharing this vibrant culture with people—seeing how it resonates and the overwhelming support we continue to receive from the community has really kept us going.