ChanTALA Matcha Highlight
The Berry Chantilly cake is an undeniable staple for dessert lovers everywhere. It has taken the internet by storm the past two springs, with its fans fawning over its layers of moist vanilla-almond cake, mascarpone whipped cream, and fresh berries — a structure reminiscent of a tres leches cake. Even when it’s not all over the “for you page”, people are always thinking about that Berry Chantilly cake (at least, we definitely are). Here at our Winnetka location, we decided to take our love for it one step further.
Meet our new favorite drink to sip on: the Chantala Matcha. Going hand-in-hand with our recent pivot to unsweetened matcha, the Chantala Matcha combines our decadent, earthy matcha with a balanced vanilla syrup and our homemade blueberry-strawberry whipped cream, garnished with tangy freeze-dried raspberries. Trust me, it tastes and looks just as good as it sounds. After brainstorming our winter drink idea, a tiramisu latte, the Winnetka staff was a little bummed when we found out a cafe exclusive wouldn’t be feasible for that seasonal menu. Thankfully, our four cozy staples did a great job holding their own. For our spring drink launch, though, I didn’t want to let go of that idea just yet, but tiramisu didn’t feel quite spring-y enough. So, when I pitched the idea of a berry chantilly-inspired drink, our staff group chat sprang into mass hysteria.
We promptly reached the consensus that we had to add our chantilly cake matcha to the menu. Christine, one of our cafe attendants, even brought in an entire cake to the cafe, which the team nibbled on throughout shifts. If you saw us walk out of the back room with dollops of whipped cream on our aprons, no, you didn’t. We channeled those flavors into our taste-testing session with Tala co-owner Stefan and came up with a delicious drink that made all of our eyes widen.
Learn more about our cafe exclusive drink development process in Mia’s BTS article!
Our final challenge was, of course, thinking of a name and launching the drink. After much revelation, our barista, Cami, thought of the most unexpected, otherworldly, undeniably niche name: the Chantala Matcha — in all seriousness, though, we thought the simplicity of combining the cake name with Tala was fitting. The Chantala Matcha has just the right amount of “stuff” going on, and its name reflects just that. Since its first day on the menu, the drink instantly drew attention and became a hit. The baristas got endless oohs and ahhs and questions about what the drink with the fun, blue whipped cream was.
There isn’t much else to say about our beloved Winnetka cafe exclusive — the concept is convincing enough in itself. Plus, with Earth Day on the 22nd, I can’t think of anything more perfect to indulge in than a naturally vibrant, perfectly sweet, blue and green matcha. Grab your own before we swap it out for our next seasonal creation!
Veronika Pek
Meet Roni, barista at our Winnetka Cafe and a new addition to the Event Planning team. When she’s on the other side of the bar, you’ll find her catching a train to school, where she studies PR & Advertising and Music Business, or maybe compiling her tip money to buy tickets to the next concert or music festival. As a dancer, travel lover, and loyal friend, she’s always looking for something exciting to keep her occupied.