LeAnn Darland and Tara Hankinson
TALEA Beer Co. | New York
February 2023
Before she was thinking up sours and hazy IPAs, LeAnn Darland studied economics at the Naval Academy. The Ohio native went on to get her masters in finance at Johns Hopkins
University before serving as a signals intelligence officer in the Navy, stationed in Hawaii and later San Diego. While in California, she frequented Coronado Brewing Company in her spare time, which sparked her love of craft beer. After her time in the Navy, Darland moved to San Francisco to work in corporate finance until, after an enlightening eight-day hiking trip, she decided to pursue a career in the beer industry. She began homebrewing while earning her MBA from UC Berkeley. Eventually, she found herself at Hopsy, a beer commerce startup, where she would meet friend and future business partner, Tara Hankinson.
Growing up, Tara Hankinson’s parents worked in hospitality as beverage directors, general managers, and wine importers, which instilled a sense of care and stewardship in her. She attended business school at New York University, and in 2015, spent a summer working at Wölffer Estate Vineyard before starting her full-time job in management consulting. Her time at Wölffer inspired her to start homebrewing and dreaming of brewery concepts. In 2018, she joined the team at Hopsy and, almost immediately, she and Darland knew they wanted to start a business together.
The seeds were planted, and in April 2019, TALEA released their first beer. Darland and Hankinson began pitching their business plan to potential investors, and their beers to bars, restaurants, and retailers across New York City. They opened their flagship brewery and taproom in Williamsburg in 2021. Their second taproom location opened in summer 2022 in Cobble Hill, along with a pop-up bar adjacent to Grand Central Station. At TALEA, Darland and Hankinson specialize in creating complex sours, often collaborating with local chefs and restaurants, that are served in a bright, inviting, and community-focused spot.
