JANUARY 5, 2026

What do you want to remember?

Hi there,

Happy New Year! How was your weekend?

I drove to Portland, Oregon this past Friday and felt a familiar pull to stop by Coava Coffee Roasters. It’s not really about the coffee. I’m lucky to have plenty of great coffee in my life. There’s something deeper that draws me back.

I first walked into Coava in back in August 2010. I was visiting Portland for a few days, and it was just a few weeks after they opened their flagship cafe and roastery on SE Grand. Then, as now, it’s a bright and airy industrial space shared with a woodworking shop. I love the feel of it—warm, communal, people making (and enjoying) something they believe in.

This memory stays with me because it was one of those experiences that could only exist in that window of time. The chance to connect with the founders as they brewed coffee, sharing that beginning with them, the sense of dreams taking shape.

Coava was just getting started, and in my own ways, so was I.

Every time I return, I’m reminded of what it felt like that day to be drawn in and immersed in the magic of it all. Places can do that for us. They hold meaning. We step back into them and are reminded of who we were, what mattered to us then, and how far we’ve come since. Coava has evolved. And so have I.

I don’t subscribe to the idea that we should never look back, and I’m careful not to romanticize the past either. It's about reconnecting with what mattered then and choosing what’s worth carrying forward.

What do you want to carry forward into the year ahead?

Cheers to what you’ll create this year.

Mallory

P.S. After that first visit in 2010, I shared about the experience with my mentor, Tom Billionis—founder of The Coffee Ethic and a remarkable coach and community builder. I'll never forget what he said: Just remember, go experience things that inspire you, but don't ever forget about what you are capable of. Tom died in 2016, and his reminder is spot on as ever. That's the beauty of mentorship, it really is a gift that guides long into the future.​