This past weekend, we celebrated Nine Years as a business. As usual, we threw a big party. Thank you to everyone who came out to have a fun time on Sunday, whether you got a Birthday Cake Latte, enjoyed something epic from one of our pop-ups, came to our roastery tour, grabbed a slice of cake, or—my personal favorite—drew your smiley face on our community self portrait. We had so much fun with you all!

“When you get to do what you love, you feel lucky”, shares Ryan, co-founder of Pilates + Coffee, a prominent fixture of the Roscoe village community. Founders Ryan and Jacquelyn fused their talents and passion for their community into a studio and café that has spent nearly a decade bringing people together through movement and coffee.

Our “Behind The Bar'“ series highlights one of our team members, celebrating their unique contribution to the Tala experience. We believe the connection across the bar can be meaningful and impactful. Our team puts a smile on the faces of so many each day by simply serving delicious beverages and being an authentic presence in each person’s day. Learn more about what makes each person on the Tala Team unique with this personal interview.

The first time someone explained coffee fermentation to me, I nodded politely in the way people do when they absolutely do not understand what’s happening but would still like to appear employable in a specialty coffee setting.

Meet our new favorite drink to sip on: the Chantala Matcha. Going hand in hand with our 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 as good as it sounds.

If you know us, you know we’ve never shied away from experimenting with unique flavors on our menu. From carrot juice to pandan to activated charcoal, we’re no stranger to “out of the box” ingredients here at Tala.

So… we figured it was time to lean into something a little more local.

Introducing: the Malört Latte.

I think somewhere along the way, everything just… expanded. Sizes got bigger, menus got longer, prices got higher, and the ever-so-innocent cappuccino got swept up in it all. It adapted. It stretched. It lost a bit of its sense of self.  Now it shows up rebranded, reinterpreted, and occasionally followed by the one silly question that keeps me up at night. “Hot or iced?”

Our behind the design series is a closer look at design elements that make up Tala. From packaging to merchandise to party themes, explore the who, when, why and how to the what you know and love.

We hosted our second-ever latte art competition at our Highwood café, and it was an absolutely awesome night. On February 28th, folks from all over Chicagoland, and even some out-of-staters, joined the Tala crew in throwing down behind the bar. Contenders showed up, showed out, and showed us their best pours.