Monday Morning Coffee Industry Check-in - Ep #442

Cat & Cloud Podcast

Cat & Cloud

Education

4.8 • 727 Ratings

🗓️ 20 March 2026

⏱️ 63 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Cat & Cloud Podcast Cat & Cloud Coffee www.catandcloud.com/ Monday Morning Coffee Industry Check-in - Ep #442 Summary In this episode, Chris, Jared and Casey cover a wide mix of coffee-industry updates, behind-the-scenes projects, and big-picture reflections on what makes specialty coffee compelling. They preview upcoming events including a Bay Area roundtable with Coffee Futures Fund, their plans for World of Coffee in San Diego, and Chris’s upcoming Cafe Imports panel focused on the real challenges business owners are facing right now. The conversation also dives into the design and philosophy behind the new third version of the Chris Baca Dial Tamper, exploring how tools can become expressions of craft, ritual, and identity. From there, they wander into a thoughtful discussion about trade shows, coffee culture, Blue Bottle’s evolution under corporate ownership, and the tension between hospitality, scale, authenticity, and business reality—while still keeping the whole thing loose, funny, and very Monday-morning Cat & Cloud. Chapters 00:00 Coffee Futures Roundtable on Cafe Business Ownership 06:00 World of Coffee in San Diego: Why This Year Feels Big 10:00 Chris’s Cafe Imports Panel: Less PR, More Reality 15:00 The Third Dial Tamper and the Beauty of Overbuilt Tools 26:45 Why Coffee Gear and Design Geek Out 35:00 Blue Bottle, Big Business, and the Arc of a Brand 40:00 Nestle, Specialty Coffee and Cafes Cat & Cloud: Instagram www.instagram.com/catcloudcoffee/ Webstore www.catandcloud.com/ Roasters Choice Subscription www.catandcloud.com/collections/subscriptions Wholesale Partners! Interested in serving our coffee at your business? Learn more about our Partner Program https://catandcloud.com/wholesale Links: Coffee Futures Fund: Jared Truby Zine https://www.flipsnack.com/965BBFD6AED/letter-to-young-coffee-owners-issue-with-jared-truby Coffee Futures Fund: Roundtable Event https://coffeefutures.fund/Roundtable.html World of Coffee/SCA https://usa.worldofcoffee.org/ Cafe Imports https://www.eventbrite.com/e/source-where-do-we-go-from-here-tickets-1983895046489 Cat & Cloud Coffee was founded in 2016 by three friends who believe experiences and connections shape our lives. Former barista champions and lifelong coffee professionals, they envisioned a better way to do business and set out to create a values-driven organization that put culture first. Our mission is to inspire connection by creating memorable experiences. Whether it's with guests in our 4 retail locations in Santa Cruz, our team members, or our wholesale partners across the country, we strive to leave everyone better than we found them. The Cat & Cloud Podcast is a space for us to share our experiences and adventures in coffee and business in hopes of inspiring more people to create culture and values-driven organizations. Hosted by Chris Baca and Jared Truby Produced by Casey Ryan March 2026

Transcript

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0:00.0	Catin Cloud Podcast episode 442.
0:04.1	I've tried to record this intro multiple times, but the reality of this episode is that
0:09.1	it's a riff fest.
0:11.1	Jared and I are going off like we do.
0:13.2	We talk a little bit about what's upcoming in terms of events.
0:16.5	We've got world of coffee coming up.
0:18.3	We're hosting a roundtable here in Santa Cruz with the Coffee Futures Fund.
0:22.7	We're doing the source panel with Cafe Imports.
0:25.2	We'll put dates on everything that we have hard dates for in the description.
0:29.0	Everything that we don't.
0:30.3	Subscribe to the newsletter.
0:31.8	Check our socials.
0:32.6	We'll be keeping you up to date on where we're going to be.
0:35.9	So we're riffing. And then the conversation takes this incredible hard left and we talk
0:41.4	Blue Bottle.
0:42.8	So I'm sure some of you are up on the Blue Bottle news.
0:46.2	Blue Bottle, who grew their company, sold to Nestle years ago.
0:51.5	Nestle has sold the retail portion of the portfolio to a company called Luckin,
0:55.8	which is owned by another big company. And Jared and I are just kind of riffing on,
1:00.1	what does this mean? What are this? What is this a sign of? What can we expect? Does it mean
1:06.4	anything at all? And we disagree on a few points here, which I think is really interesting and fun.
1:11.6	Who wants to listen to two guys who just agree with each other on everything?
	...

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