Journal — June 2023

I’m really excited to share Talormade with you this month. These coffees all shone really brightly when we cupped them together—you’re really in for a treat. This is our third time featuring Talormade. The first time we worked with Talor, she had just opened Talormade, after losing her first roastery Talor&Jørgen in an ugly and very public lawsuit. It was a bittersweet story that now, a few years later, has gotten significantly sweeter—like donut glaze sweet.

Talor Browne grew up in Australia and got her start in coffee at some of Melbourne’s best coffee companies. She was then hired to help grow Coutume, one of Paris’ most famous cafes, before moving to Oslo, Norway to work as Tim Wendelboe’s head roaster. Melbourne is arguably the coffee capital of the world, Paris has shaped cafe culture for centuries, and Tim Wendelboe helped define the specialty coffee industry as we know it today; so it’s a pretty impressive resume, and you can feel the impact of each of those experiences and how they rubbed off on her. But one look at Talormade will show you that Talor leaves her neon, rainbow-colored fingerprints on everything she touches, managing to make them fully her own (and ensuring that no one will be able to take her coffee company away from her again).

The first time I went to Norway (before either coffee company had opened), I managed to one of her incredible donuts, then as a popup called Fryd. On my next trip back, I got to try a coffee at Talor&Jorgen. Then several years passed, a pandemic happened, and my career changed. But last summer, knowing I would soon open Yonder’s cafe, I planned a getaway to Europe and managed to carve out a few days in Oslo. Talor and I got to share a coffee by the water outside her newest Talormade location, and it really all felt full circle.

It’s been a journey for Talor, refining her sense of self in the coffee world through each move and plot twist and year. And it has been that for me as well. Yonder’s subscription turns 5 next month, and our cafe celebrated 6 months open last week. I’m grateful for the familiar faces of regulars, and the familiar names of subscribers I’ve never met but have shipped coffee to for years. So hang tight with us on this journey over Yonder. We’re really glad to have you on board, and we hope you enjoy our selection of in-flight coffees. The seatbelt sign is off.