espresso subscription: august 2026
You may have first heard of Cat & Cloud through the Cat&Cloud Podcast or co-founder Chris Baca’s coffee videos @RealChrisBaca. But have you spent a week with their coffee on your home bar?
This month, we’re excited to bring the La Marzocco Home Espresso Subscription community Cat & Cloud, a Santa Cruz coffee company founded by three friends and lifelong coffee professionals: Jared, Chris, and Charles.
Cat & Cloud was built around a mission in 2015: to inspire connection by creating memorable experiences. They continue to live this mission today in the way they think about hospitality, culture, teamwork, and the small interactions that can leave someone better than you found them.
both of the featured coffee’s this month give you the option to either slow down and study the details, or simply enjoy the coffee without overthinking it. And that feels very Cat & Cloud.
the answer
Origin: Brazil, Ethiopia & Mexico
Producer: Various
Elevation: 1100-1900 MASL
Process: Washed & Natural
Variety: Various
Tasting Notes: Caramel, Berries & Chocolate.
Description: A modern take on classic espresso. The Answer is Cat & Cloud’s flagship espresso, a mainstay at each of our four Santa Cruz cafés. Chocolate, caramel, and berry notes create intricate layers of flavor while remaining beautifully balanced. In milk-based drinks, The Answer melts into pure caramel and butterscotch, with hints of fruit peeking through. This espresso has a wide range and is very forgiving.
Brewing Recipe
Dose: 18.5 – 19 grams
Time: 25 – 30 seconds
Yield: 32 – 34 grams
Temperature: 200 F
Pressure: 9 Bar
takele mammo
Origin: Ethiopia, Yirgacheffe Region
Producer: Takele Mammo Denbi
Elevation: 1800 – 2100 MASL
Process: Washed
Variety: Indigenous heirloom cultivars
Tasting Notes: Dried Strawberry, Apricot & Rooibos
Description: The quintessential single-origin espresso experience. Floral and juicy, with a brightness that makes you grin without the dreaded face-changing pucker. As espresso, the floral qualities of this coffee sing lead vocals, backed by a fruit medley of nectarine and strawberry. A fun, adventurous espresso experience.
Former Managing Director of the Yirgacheffe Coffee Farmers Cooperative Union, Takele Mammo Denbi released this lot through Ethiopia’s Single Farmer Lot Program, bypassing the large cooperative blends that have historically defined the Ethiopian coffee market.
Brewing Recipe
Dose: 18-18.5 grams
Time: 28-31 seconds
Yield: 36-38 grams
Temperature: 200 F
Pressure: 9 Bar
dialogue with co-owner: chris baca
La Marzocco Home: Why the name Cat & Cloud? Is there a fun story behind this now-iconic name, and does the cat have a name?
Chris Baca “The original Cat & Cloud logo was drawn in 2010 by our great friend Julia, who owns Dune Coffee Roasters in Santa Barbara. It was part of an “art show” that featured Jared and me as various sea creatures and coffee paraphernalia, all based on our personalities. We loved the logo and adopted it as an unofficial mascot.
Fast-forward to 2015, when we were naming our coffee company. We were trudging through a host of terrible potential names when my wife suggested we call it Cat & Cloud based on the drawing and its history, and it stuck. Jared is the Cloud, and I’m the Cat, so technically the cat’s name is Chris!”
La Marzocco Home: Describe Santa Cruz to someone who’s never been there, but only using coffee terms.
Chris Baca “Santa Cruz is like a beautifully textured cappuccino made with old-school, dark-roasted espresso. It has beautiful coastlines, amazing redwoods, and perfect weather, with a gritty undertone that gives it a certain charm and sets it apart from other coastal California cities. It’s beauty and the beast.”
La Marzocco Home: What’s a piece of espresso brewing advice you’ve given thousands of times that people still need to hear?
Chris Baca “Making espresso is a series of relatively simple steps, but the intentionality and attention to detail behind each one matter deeply. When things go sideways, it’s rarely about one thing going completely wrong and more often about a handful of things not being optimized: a slightly uneven distribution, a rushed tamp, haphazard motion. Go slow. Pay attention. Enjoy the process.”
“If I were forced to pick one thing, I’d say: be gentle when inserting the portafilter into the grouphead. If you slam your portafilter around and open up a channel in the puck, you negate all the hard work you’ve done with your dose, distribution, and tamp. Keep it smooth, don’t disturb the coffee bed after you’ve tamped it, and your espresso will thank you.”
La Marzocco Home: What’s something you believed about coffee 10 years ago that makes you laugh now?
Chris Baca “This goes back further than 10 years, but in my early years as an educator, I was guilty of grossly overcomplicating the espresso process and needlessly frustrating my students. One of the beautiful things about espresso is that it’s a choose-your-own-adventure book. If you want to engage in the extreme nerdiness of measuring the TDS of every shot and having a 36-step puck prep system, more power to you. But you can also make incredibly delicious espresso by sticking to a handful of basics and letting your senses guide you.”
“I’ve been on both sides of the fence at different times over the course of my career, and while I have my preferences, I know there’s no one right way to enjoy coffee.”
La Marzocco Home: What’s the difference between a coffee that is impressive and a coffee that is memorable?
Chris Baca “At the heart of all great coffee experiences is emotional connection. It’s easy to get caught up in fringe processing methods, elevations, rare varietals, or auction-lot status. But there’s an experiential dimension of coffee enjoyment that lives outside of any scoresheet or rating system.”
“We put boatloads of intentionality into every coffee on our menu, but if people want to ignore all the details and simply enjoy their coffee on the porch as the sun is coming up, or cozied up by the fire with their friends, we’re all for that. Those are the moments we’ll remember when we’ve long forgotten that the coffee scored a 92.”
Anything else you want to share about yourself with our subscribers? A fun story or inspiration, community involvement, or environmental efforts?
Chris Baca “Cat & Cloud was founded by three lifelong coffee professionals with the mission of inspiring connection by creating memorable experiences. We believe that each of us has the power to impact someone’s life for the better. We’re obsessed with hospitality and workplace culture, and hope to show the world that leading with culture and a strong sense of mission and values is the wave of the future.
“This belief extends beyond coffee. On a personal note to whoever is reading this: your work matters. Creating positive impact is less about what you do and more about the attitude and energy you do it with.”
la marzocco home x cat & cloud summer event
We recently had the pleasure of partnering with Cat & Cloud for a fun event in Santa Cruz, California. Our team flew in for the day, to celebrate the local coffee scene, the Cat & Cloud community, and the joy of making espresso all together.
