I brought the AeroPress camping with me and everything changed. After seeing how the AeroPress preformed in the outdoors with bladders of water and minimal equipment, I am never going back. All of the things I mentioned above came into play again but even more so. I didn’t have to worry about breaking it as we tried to fit our cooking gear, cloths, tent and sleeping set up snugly into our packs.

Our newest single origin release comes from the Kanzu washing station in the Nyamasheke district of Rwanda. This is a washed coffee with bourbon varietals. The flavor notes that we picked up on from this specific coffee are blackberry, honey and custard. We are so excited to share this coffee with all of you since it has been quite some time since we’ve featured a Rwandan coffee in our lineup!

Making a lot of coffee creates a lot of used coffee grounds. In fact, it creates three pounds of used coffee grounds just to make one keg of cold brew, six pounds of coffee to make one batch of cold brew concentrate, half a pound of coffee for each batch of Ruca house blend we brew up and then there is each puck of espresso for each and every espresso drink. That adds up very quickly, especially when you’re brewing coffee from 7am until 6pm daily!

By brewing coffee at home, you can do less running in your day, you can work smarter and prepare your coffee routine for the week ahead without even going out (shout out to Coffee Club and Neighborly deliveries), and you can save money! Plus you get really delicious coffee whenever you want or need it. And you definitely need it Monday mornings, and Tuesday, and Wednesday. . . Don’t get us wrong, we love serving you coffee at the cafe, but we also understand that sometimes you want to save. We believe you should be able to save money while also enjoying excellent coffee.

Over the past few weeks, we’ve been offering a naturally processed coffee from El Salvador. To be more specific, we’ve been offering a particular variety of coffee, from a particular lot, on a particular farm, from a particular famer, Mr. Johnny Lemus, located in Chalatenango. In case you missed it, everything about this coffee is particular.

Coffees from Burundi have long been a favorite of the Tala Team for the unique flavors that seldom are seen in coffees from any other African region. Where a lot of other African regions tend to be full of brighter citrus fruits, we love Burundi’s for their deeper, richer fruited tones closest to dried and cooked fruits. This one is exactly that and tasting like sweet dried golden raisin, dried apricot, date, fig, goji berry, that are all wrapped up in a lavender essenced gift basket. Trust us, this is a gift basket you’re going to want to keep receiving.

Coffees from Burundi have long been a favorite of the Tala Team for the unique flavors that seldom are seen in coffees from any other African region. Where a lot of other African regions tend to be full of brighter citrus fruits, we love Burundi’s for their deeper, richer fruited tones closest to dried and cooked fruits. This one is exactly that and tasting like sweet dried golden raisin, dried apricot, date, fig, goji berry, that are all wrapped up in a lavender essenced gift basket. Trust us, this is a gift basket you’re going to want to keep receiving.

This coffee simply put, tastes like everything we love about the fall season. It’s loaded with brown sugar, caramel, and candied pecan sweetness, soft and ripe pear and apple, as well as warm and cozy cocoa. It pairs perfectly with a hayrides, pumpkin carving, apple picking, and bonfires.

We love this coffee because it really embodies the transition of the last of the summer turning into fall. Fresh and ripe fruit flavors of raspberry, cherry, passion fruit, and guava on the front end of each sip transition and finish with warm and comforting flavors of praline and milk chocolate. This uniquely sweet coffee is perfect for cool mornings as well as warm afternoons.

This is the coffee you wait to wake up to in the morning. Altos De marfil is a fantastic balanced and approachable coffee that both a common coffee drinker and a coffee connoisseur will enjoy. This is our first offering from Ecuador and our first offering for Caravella Importers. Expect pleasant notes of fudge with a well-rounded body and a golden raisin tang acidity.

This coffee from Hambela highlights all the unique complexity of flavor that we love about washed Guji coffees. This one is full of exciting, fresh fruit and floral tones like melon, tangerine, lemon, honeysuckle, and chamomile that truly sparkle in the cup. Some weird and interesting times are upon us, but brew up a cup of this fun coffee because its sure to lighten the mood and put a smile on your face.

Contrary to popularly held ideals, modern day, specialty Colombia coffees produce more than just boring, one-liner cups. Advances and implementation of new growing and processing methods have drastically improved their quality and consistency. This offering from La Union showcases this well with big, syrupy cooked strawberry flavors that mingle with familiar sweet tones of chocolate sauce, butterscotch, and caramel. It’s an incredibly balanced and refined “union” of flavors that are sure to please any palette.

The members of the Tala Team collectively are all big fans of coffees from Burundi, and naturally are very excited about having another one hit the shelves and pour over grinders. We love them for their balance and drinkability, while having unique complexity of flavor thats unique compared to other African coffee favorites like Ethiopia and Kenya. This one from Buzira Washing station expresses these qualities perfectly with a syrupy cola sweetness, notes of stone fruit, and a crisp lime acidity finish. This coffee somehow is both simple and extravagant in the same sip. Don’t sleep on this one.

The Democratic Republic of Congo has emerged on the specialty coffee scene somewhat recently but always seem to lag behind in quality and flavor compared to more established coffee growing areas. Until now, we hadn’t had the privilege of ever drinking any delicious coffees from here, but upon sample roasting, this one looked very promising. And during a recent blind cupping, it clearly stood apart from 19 other coffees because of its big, sugary sweetness. Its coffees like this that show that more big things are to come from the DR Congo. Clear notes of sweetened rooibos tea, juicy melon and honeydew, and caramelized sugar make this one especially sweet, beautiful coffee.

We’re excited to offer yet another amazing offering from Kenya. This one coming from the Kiriga Estate is the pinnacle of savory and sweet flavors harmoniously signing together. Deep, rich maple and stewed fruit flavors of grapefruit and guava round out this wonderful coffee. We love it and know you will too.

At the beginning of the Summer we got a natural processed Guji Shakiso coffee on the shelves that has been a big hit. Recently, we got a hold of the same coffee, from the exact same farm, with the only traceable difference being process. This Guji Shakiso is a washed coffee—our team’s favorite process—and has many similarities to the natural Shakiso, but the difference in processes makes for a unique contrast of the two crops. This Guji is praised for its light chamomile flavor with deep lemon curd and clover honey sweetness. If you tried our other Guji, make sure to try this one to compare and contrast the processes.

This coffee comes from the La Escuadra region in Costa Rica. It is a red honey process, which means the mucilage is left on the bean while it dries, usually resulting in a more fruit-forward flavor. This particular coffee tastes like tangerine and blackberries with a nice creamy texture. We think its the perfect way to end the summer.

This is our second offering from our of our favorite subregions of Ethiopia: the Guji zone. This coffee is special to us because it is our very first naturally processed coffee that we’ve had as an offering. We taste honey and concord grape-like sweetness with a subtle blueberry aroma. This coffee is everything we love about deeper, rich Ethiopian coffees. This coffee was also chosen with help from our customers at our first public cupping.

Uteuzi Jimbo (oo-tay-oo-zee), meaning ‘country select’, brings the best crops from the Kirinyaga region together for a beautiful cup with notes of candied grapefruit, orange marmalade, and caramel.

We launched our Spring menu maybe more with the hope of Spring coming than with the reality of it being here. Regardless of how many more snow storms we get here in Northern Illinois, we’re calling it Spring!