Between pumpkin carving, carnival rides, and live music, the Great Highwood Pumpkin Fest exceeded every expectation. Fueled by pumpkin spice lattes and fall spirit, it was one of those perfect autumn days that left us excited for more. Maybe next year, we’ll even carve more pumpkins and help break that world record!

first Forum event, we started with a time of general connection and mingling with complimentary donuts and raffle prize entries before launching into a group cupping. We had all of our single-origin coffees on the cupping table, and each coffee had one side ground by one grinder, and one by the other.

We heard so many amazing stories from people's experiences at Tala this week. In fact, we had way more submissions than we were prepared for, so it has taken several extra days to sort through it all. Thank you to everyone who shared their memories and thoughts about our cafe. We are so honored by the community and stories you’ve provided! We’ve chosen the top five memories, and randomly picked the winner of the $200 giveaway. Read all five stories below and see who is the lucky grand prize winner.

I’ve spent the last eight-ish months about 3,000 miles away from Highwood due to the COVID situation. If the whole virus thing hadn’t happened, I’d probably be in the café right now—either on shift or doing some academic work or playing a card game...

When I think back at the second year of our cafe, so many memories come to mind. From throwing parties to meeting new people to sharing conversations. The thing that stands out immediately for me above the rest is actually day one. We kicked off year two with an amazing birthday bash.