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Cat & Cloud Podcast

Craft & Automation – Mahlkönig’s tools that empower baristas and not replace them

Cat & Cloud Podcast

Cat & Cloud

Education

4.8727 Ratings

🗓️ 13 October 2025

⏱️ 89 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In this episode, we sit down with Sam Grant, Head of Sales for the Americas at Hemro Group — the company behind Mahlkönig, Ditting, Anfim, and Hey Café — to talk about how technology and craft coexist in modern coffee. We trace Sam’s path from retail to coffee equipment sales, exploring what he’s learned from connecting baristas, roasters, and engineers around the world. At its heart, this conversation isn’t just about grinders — it’s about growth, adaptation, and learning from people who approach coffee differently. From the rise of automation to the art of keeping things human, we unpack how technology can either replace or empower craft, and how curiosity and humility keep you evolving in an industry that never stops changing. 🔖 Chapters – 00:00 Intro 01:13 Welcome Sam Grant 01:58 Sam’s journey into coffee 07:15 Settling in to the coffee industry 12:37 Crafting comprehension 15:49 Hemro Group 23:59 EK History 27:02 Grind by Weight 34:00 Preventative maintenance 41:34 Grind by sync 47:01 Automation behind the bar 59:01 Adoption of sync 1:02:17 New things 1:08:54 Bur tangent 1:07:37 Other things in the works 1:08:54 Home espresso market 1:13:25 Love for the work 🔗 Links – Hemro Group: Website: https://www.hemrogroup.com/en Mahlkönig: https://www.mahlkoenig.com/ Cat & Cloud: Instagram www.instagram.com/catcloudcoffee/ Webstore www.catandcloud.com/ Chris Baca’s Personal Blog: www.chrisbaca.com/ We are Cat & Cloud Coffee. Started by three friends trying to pursue their passions with the mission to inspire connection by creating memorable experiences, and we created this podcast to continue forming those connections inside and out of our cafes. The Cat & Cloud podcast was created as a space for us to share our experiences in the coffee industry and starting a business. Each week we sit down to talk about new challenges as business owners, how we utilize our mission and values to make decisions, and answer questions from our listening community. If you’re looking to expand your coffee knowledge, get some advice for your own small business, or just like the vibes, give us a listen! Enjoy!

Transcript

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0:00.0

Over my time in coffee, automation or technologies kind of like creeping itself in more and more and more.

0:09.7

And I think there's been over the past 10 years this kind of, I don't want to say,

0:14.2

crisis of conscience, but it's like, what are we actually doing here?

0:17.5

What is your job as a barista?

0:19.9

And I think it's different depending on the kind of

0:22.3

cafe that you work in. You should be dialing in every morning, right? We had a lot of baristas

0:27.9

day one that were like, you're trying to like delete my job. I will always argue grinders can't

0:32.9

taste coffee. Done. Your job is secure. It's not going to know what good tastes like. But basically,

0:38.6

you should be dialing in. Then you turn on the sink and it keeps you dialed in. If you don't

0:43.3

want to run the sink, disable it. Turn it off. Dial your shots as you always have all day long.

0:49.4

What I'm finding as I'm doing these stops on this tour is a lot of baristas are like, okay,

0:53.9

actually, I care about making it really great when I start. If it's going to keep me where I put it, yeah, I'm pretty okay with that. Thank you. What's up, everybody?

1:15.5

We're in Seattle.

1:17.7

I'm sitting here with Sam Grant.

1:19.7

Head of sales for the Americas of Hemro Group.

1:24.2

So Hemro Group is, tell me if I got this right.

1:27.1

It is the parent company that

1:28.7

owns Malconig, or as you say it. Malcunig. Ditting, Anthem, and Hey.

1:36.9

Hey, Cafe. That's right. Hey Cafe is the one I'm the least familiar with. So yeah, did I have

1:42.8

that right? Yeah, 100%. And then, okay, cool. So I want to

1:46.5

talk about all the companies. I want to talk about grinders. We're here via the Malconig channel.

1:51.5

But before we get going, I just want to know about you. I mean, we were talking yesterday,

...

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