To better understand how our specialty drink menu came to life, we sat down with Joanna, co-owner and lead specialty menu developer, to talk through her process in creating our four specialty drinks, the stories behind them, and what inspired them in the first place. Cheers!

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.

As the weather turns, we’re excited to offer an exciting lineup of events this month to ring in spring, help you defrost, and treat yourself after braving yet another Chicago winter.

Read what’s brewing this month.

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.

March always feels like the deep breath before the exhale. The light lingers a little longer, the air softens (just slightly), and we start emerging from full-on winter mode. After months of bundling up and keeping cozy, it finally feels like we’re stepping out of hibernation — and we’re celebrating the best way we know how: with coffee, community, and a lineup of events at Tala.

Read what’s brewing this month.

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.

Mastercol – Terra is our first fresh-crop coffee of the new year from Huila, Colombia, arriving after an exceptional run of standout Huila lots throughout 2025. It immediately caught our attention as a double-fermented, single-varietal Caturra from Mastercol—one of our most trusted producer groups and long-term partners since 2017. This is a coffee that feels both familiar and exciting, building on everything we love about the region while offering a renewed sense of vibrancy.