There’s something about recipes that feel like an inheritance of sorts. They aren’t just instructions, but tiny windows into how someone lived. My grandma’s recipes were mostly simple, but thoughtful and always meant to be shared. When I began working on the recipe for the Carrot Cake Latte for our Libertyville Café seasonal menu, I kept coming back to that same idea: creating something simple, thoughtful, and worth passing around. 

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?”

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.

Letting go of the holiday drinks feels easier when winter brings a lineup this good. Our 2026 Winter Seasonal Drinks lean into warmth, balance, and depth—built for cold days and slower moments. This is the time of year when we get to fine-tune and experiment, creating some of our most thoughtful and layered drinks. The result is a menu that feels comforting yet intentional, meant to be enjoyed one sip at a time. Read on and find the winter drink you’ll be craving next.

Yet another impressive coffee from Huila, Colombia! This time it's the super exciting Chiroso varietal. This one from the farmers in La Argentina & Pitalito jumps out with ripe, strong, jammy cherry filling sweetness, tangerine juice concentrate, and round apple flavors. A truly beautiful coffee we're excited to share at an incredible price, punching way above its weight class.

The ~cosmos~ have spoken. Your destiny? Delicious. Gone are the days of circling your horoscope with a glitter gel pen and feeling known by the universe from a paragraph that told you to “embrace your sparkle”. Lucky for you, we’re bringing back that magic… coffee edition.

It happens at least once a week.

Someone points to our menu, eyebrows raised. “What’s a Gibraltar?” they ask, half-whispering like they’re worried it’s a secret club they weren’t invited to.

Let’s start with this: a Gibraltar is just another name for a Cortado at Tala

Two years ago, I ventured into this tradition for the first time, and while I was overwhelmed and exhausted, it became a highlight of my holiday season. In this post, I’ll share tips to make your cookie box journey smoother, more organized, and full of cheer, along with a couple of recipes inspired by Tala’s signature flavors.

Making coffee at home is incredible fun. It can be relaxing, ritualistic, convenient, and comforting. Or, like myself, you are simply fascinated and enamored with the brewing process. Whatever the case, I’m here to guide you down the road of buying a new espresso set up.