Tucked inside The Cauldron in West Campus is a coffee stand adorned with red drapes and trailing vines. There, a married couple sifts matcha and pours tulip latte art just minutes from their alma mater.
Juan and Genny Acosta-Li run a specialty coffee shop, Mù Coffee, at The Cauldron as part of a month-long residency. Selling beverages infused with Chinese spices and candy from Genny’s heritage, the cafe will remain at The Cauldron until Saturday.
“Juan develops the recipe, and I think of flavor inspirations based on my upbringing,” Genny said. “Some of the flavors are, ‘Okay, we had this really great experience in this coffee shop in China. Let’s try and replicate that here.’ Others (are) like, ‘This flavor is commonly used in teas. I grew up drinking this. How do we turn this into a syrup and add it to coffee?’”
Juan said he kept an espresso machine in his apartment during his time at UT and would brew coffee for Genny.
“At that time, I wasn’t a big coffee drinker,” Genny said. “I was only drinking O’s (Campus) Cafe in McCombs to stay awake, so I was very impressed when Juan was making me a latte.”
Before Mù Coffee, Genny said she worked at Google in California, and Juan followed her, becoming a Bay Area barista. While road-tripping during the pandemic, Juan said he secured a remote data science job in Austin. Meanwhile, Genny considered leaving the tech industry.
“It wasn’t like, ‘Oh, I’m going to quit, and I’m going to do coffee,’” Genny said. “It was more so, ‘I’ve been working in corporate for, like, six years now. I enjoy what I’m doing, but it’s not what I’m passionate about.’”
The couple said they often travel abroad and found coffee culture in Australia and China intriguing during one of their trips, which inspired their venture into the coffee industry.
“Mù Coffee was born on that trip (to China) as an idea of like, ‘Oh, we could bring these flavors to the U.S. It would be pretty novel,’” Juan said.
Relying on a network of influencers Genny built through her personal food blog, the couple has hosted eight coffee stands around Austin since February. Genny said she feels pop-ups are fun, but not sustainable.
“I want something a little bit more permanent,’” Genny said. “We’ve done a few pop-ups at The Cauldron in West Campus, and from that, the opportunity came about where we could do a one-month partnership.”
Julianna Martin, a former teacher in Korea and recent customer, said seeing Asian flavors on the menu felt exciting.
“I’m very particular about my coffee, especially in America,” Martin said. “I could tell they knew what they were doing.”
Juan said he simply enjoys manning the cafe with his lifelong partner.
“Trying to get a coffee shop to work, at the end of the day, should be fairly straightforward as long as you don’t do anything too crazy,” Juan said. “It’s more about doing it right. For me, in this case, that just means doing it in a way that Genny likes and makes her happy. … It brings me joy to see her happy and be successful.”
