Specialty Menu Highlight: The Mermaid
A deeper dive into what makes our specialty drink menu, well, special.
At Tala, we exist somewhere in the space between high-end specialty coffee and everyday ritual, and that’s completely intentional. From the beginning, our goal was to create drinks that highlight the quality and care behind what we do, while still feeling approachable for every kind of coffee drinker. Because at the end of the day, sweet, beautiful coffees are best enjoyed the way you want them, not the way you feel like you’re supposed to.
When we first built out our menu, the vision was simple: a small lineup of specialty drinks that would stay consistent year-round. Drinks people could come back to again and again, paired with a rotating seasonal menu that allows for a bit more creativity and experimentation. Over time, our seasonal menu has grown, changed, and been experimented with, but these core drinks have remained unchanged, becoming staples of the Tala experience.
Our specialty menu includes four signature drinks: The Mermaid, The Bonebreaker, The Miel, and The Dirty Hippie, alongside our three café-exclusive offerings unique to each of our three locations: the Unit B in Libertyville, the Engine 37 in Highwood, and the 93 Octane in Winnetka. Each one reflects not just flavor, but our philosophy — quality coffee, thoughtfully crafted, without the intimidation factor that can sometimes define specialty spaces.
To better understand how this menu came to life, we sat down with co-owner Joanna to talk through her process in creating these drinks for the opening menu, the stories behind them, and what inspired them in the first place. Cheers!
The Mermaid
If there’s one drink that perfectly captures Tala’s approach to specialty drinks, it’s The Mermaid.
When opening a coffee shop in the modern era, there’s one question you can’t really avoid: what do you do when someone orders a caramel macchiato? It’s one of the most recognizable coffee drinks out there, but in traditional specialty coffee spaces, it’s often dismissed because it is a frustrating misnomer. If you’re new to the specialty coffee world, you may not be aware of the conflict, so we’ll provide a little context.
What is a macchiato?
A macchiato is a traditional Italian espresso beverage made with two ounces of espresso and about one ounce of steamed milk. The name literally means “marked” and refers to marking the espresso with a small bit of milk. Starbucks, in the creation of its elusive “caramel macchiato,” co-opted the existing name for a drink that is almost as far from the Italian version as humanly possible.
So we return to the question: what does a specialty cafe do when someone orders a caramel macchiato?
Many cafes choose to say no when someone orders a caramel macchiato, sticking strictly to the classic definition, even if that means sending someone away without what they came in for. At Tala, given our emphasis on approachability, that was never an option. We knew we wanted to uphold the classic macchiato and give folks the drink they wanted.
Instead of rejecting the drink, we leaned into it. The goal wasn’t to recreate it exactly, and it wasn’t to “correct” it either — it was simply to make it better. To make it our way. We wanted someone to walk in, order the drink they know and love, and walk out with something that feels familiar, but tastes a million times better than they expected.
That mindset is what led to The Mermaid — our intentionally on-the-nose take on the “caramel macchiato.” It’s made with espresso, steamed milk, our house-made bourbon vanilla syrup, and finished with whipped cream and caramel drizzle. It hits all the notes people are looking for, but with a level of quality that elevates their experience.
The bourbon vanilla syrup is where things really differentiate. Long before Tala cafés existed, this syrup was already in the works, first created during our early days serving drinks at farmers’ markets. While “bourbon vanilla” is a common term, it usually refers to the extraction process, not the flavor itself. We wanted something different: a vanilla syrup that actually carried the depth and warmth of bourbon, without the alcohol. That led to experimenting with bourbon reduction, creating a syrup that adds a richer, more complex backbone to the drink from the very first sip.
In many ways, The Mermaid is the clearest expression of what Tala stands for. It’s approachable without sacrificing quality, familiar without being boring, and just self-aware enough to have a little fun and not be taken too seriously. It doesn’t redefine what people know and love. It just makes it our version. And that’s exactly the point