“Every neighborhood needs a cafe,” Josh shares right off the bat. As the manager of Calibre Coffee, Josh along with the rest of the team, have made it a point to build something larger than just a location to grab a coffee to go. They saw the opportunity to create a place of connection for the surrounding community and have established themselves and continued to build on that very idea.

The cup you drank this morning had a lineage. It came from a specific plant, with a genetic history, grown at an elevation, selected by the farmer for particular reasons. And almost none of that appears on the label.

The varietal of a given coffee is an entrance into the story of that lineage. 

At Tala, we’re always finding ways to think about waste in efficient ways that help us cut costs and emissions! The perfect opportunity to do just that, and bring some of my passion for the environment to my work, came when Too Good To Go approached us about joining their mission.

There are times when you have those big plans, the ones that require you to be wide awake and ready to go, and you think coffee is just the little treat you need. You order, you drink, you enjoy, you wait, anticipating the subtle alertness that is sure to come. And nothing. You drink your coffee, and not only do you not feel energized, but you still feel sleepy. So what happened?

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

With the creation of Libertyville’s Carrot Cake Latte and Easter hosting duties being right around the corner, I was inspired to bake something worthy of a brunch spread. The perfect combination of a hearty pastry and a delicious dessert, this Carrot Coffee Cake recipe was given to me by my coworker Marissa, who found it on Soko’s Kitchen. If anyone knows Marissa, she is an incredible baker, so I trusted her endorsement easily.

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.