Spring Drink Menu 2024
In the Chicagoland area, we had almost forgotten it wasn’t already spring, but as of yesterday, the season is official! With the onset of budding flowers, greener grass and longer days comes our long-awaited spring drink launch.
Nothing says “midwestern spring” like the lineup we have this year. We have a super refreshing lemonade concoction next to a cozy latte with graham cracker topping. The mix of flavors, textures, temperatures, and colors perfectly complements the springtime experience. These delicious drinks are the perfect accompaniment to all your seasonal activities:
🌸 Longer morning dog walks
🍋 Afternoon adventure breaks
🫐 Swinging in a hammock in the sunlight
🌷 Weekend yardwork
Whatever this season has in store for you, we hope you enjoy the brilliance of it. Our spring drinks are here to help punctuate your special moments. Enjoy them in any of our three of our cafes today.
Spring is here
🌸 🍋 🫐 🌷
Spring is here 🌸 🍋 🫐 🌷
Ube Latte
This is a reigning favorite. It’s our take on the award winning, cult classic Ube Donut from our friends at Gurnee Donuts. Ube is a purple root vegetable that tastes like a classic vanilla wafer cookie. The latte is made with espresso, ube syrup, sweetened condensed milk, coconut cream and milk. We suggest pairing it with its pastry counterpart for maximum ube.
The Ube Latte has been our most popular seasonal drink since we launched it in 2018. The idea for the latte came to us from our friends at Gurnee Donuts, who had won the Chicago Best Donut Award for their delicious ube donut shortly before we opened our cafe in Highwood. As a Singapore native, Stefan—one of our co-owners and the mastermind behind our seasonal drinks—enjoyed the idea of bringing in a flavor from the realm of South East Asia. Ube, a root vegetable grown in the Philippines, is like the more vibrant sister to taro, which is grown more widely across South East Asia and popular in the west as an ingredient in Boba Tea. The Filipino tuber is now making its own splash across the states as people embrace the deep purple color alongside the warm vanilla flavors.
If you haven’t had ube or taro before, you can conceive of this flavor as dense vanilla meets light, earthy marshmallow. When we mix it with our coconut cream and espresso goodness it is an unstoppable concoction you won’t want to miss out on.
The Main Squeeze
Long story short, this is definitely not your average lemonade stand lemonade. We’ve elevated ours with strawberry-basil syrup, sparkling water, Angostura bitters, and basil leaf garnish. You’re going to love these fresh spring flavors!
We usually try to have a non-coffee drink on our seasonal lineup for the folks who don’t want the caffeine but enjoy the fun, changing beverages. Although using lemonade is low-hanging fruit (no pun intended), we didn’t do anything with it for the first couple of years because it almost seemed too easy—people don’t really want lemonade, do they? As it turns out, they do. Granted, this isn’t your average lemonade. Our house-made strawberry-basil syrup elevates this drink far beyond what you’re used to. To our surprise, this drink has been such a hit in past years that we’ve had people coming in before work or school just for the Main Squeeze. That’s right, some people skipped morning coffee to indulge in this instead. You really know it’s good when it isn’t even the need for coffee driving the hype—this hype is pure flavor.
the violet beauregarde
This is our take on a freshly baked blueberry pie in latte form! After one sip of this someone is bound to exclaim “Violet, you’re turning violet!” to you. It is truly the perfect dessert in a cup. It’s created with espresso, blueberry, maple syrup, molasses bitters and a graham cracker crumble to garnish it off! “. . . It happens all the time, they all become blueberries. . .”
The Violet Beauregarde makes its second season with us this year. This returning drink from last spring made a splash with its cozy comfort spring feels. This is the kind of drink that pairs perfectly curled up in a blanket in a sunny spot on the porch on a brisk spring day. People love this drink for the way that it truly bridges the gaps between seasons and offers the perfect nod to a sweet dessert without anyone’s Aunt Betty making a pie.
Dirty Horchata
Everyone has their favorite Highwood taqueria, but unlike your loyalty, this drink shows no partiality and pairs well with them all. This delicious iced drink is made with rice milk, brown sugar, vanilla and almond extracts, cinnamon, and cold brew concentrate. So good, you’ll find yourself drinking these all time with or without tacos.
The Dirty Horchata returns for another year and we couldn’t be more excited. Although perfectly delicious anytime, this drink screams afternoon pick-me-up. When you find yourself amazed that it’s only 2pm and you still have 3 more hours of work, it’s time for a Dirty Horchata break. Our recommendation is to pair with tacos, or as a dessert after your tacos. The rich rice milk and sweet house-made cinnamon syrup make this one hard to pass up.