The Story
Klatch Coffee began in 1993 when Mike Perry was 30 years old, having dropped out of college at 18 to work construction before returning to pursue a degree in biochemical engineering at UC Riverside. As they considered what to name it, Cindy remembered her grandma getting together with her friends for a “coffee klatch,” Dutch for coffee and conversation.
The first Klatch coffee house opened in Rancho Cucamonga at the site of a former winery. Klatch was an immediate hit. Four years later, in 1997, just after Mike graduated with a degree in biochemical engineering from UC Riverside, Klatch opened up a second shop in San Dimas.
Mike was on an endless search for better coffee; buying from 6 different roasters in 1993 (they were the original multi-roaster coffee house). He spent his long days at UC Riverside working on getting his degree and with longer nights behind the espresso machine.
Klatch was a pioneer in third wave coffee. Once Mike Perry launched his exploration into the coffee bean, it was game on. The scientist in him, combined with his natural affinity for all things coffee, meant the Klatch was among the first in the coffee industry to take the pursuit of taste to its highest level.
Klatch is a family-owned and run coffee company based in Southern California and distributed worldwide. She now heads up the family business as CEO of Klatch Coffee. Holly began sweeping beans behind the counter when she was 5 years old and truly grew up in the coffee industry. After graduating from Cal Poly Pomona with a BA in Hotel and Restaurant Management, and becoming a certified sommelier, she’s now Retail Director for the family business and could not imagine doing anything else.
Sourcing & Relationships
Klatch follows a Direct Trade Coffee model that is designed to meet the needs of the families in today’s market. We buy straight from the growers, cutting out the traditional middleman. In doing so we’re able to pay well above Fair-Trade minimums - by at least 25% - but often pay double or triple those prices based on the cup quality.
We only buy Cup of Excellence quality coffee and above, often 90 points or more. The farmer who grows such award-winning coffee is a true artisan and should be giving their due.
And that’s how we started our direct trade model of sourcing coffee.” Mike has been circling the globe ever since. Before direct trade was a buzzword, Mike was living it. He went straight to the growers themselves. Klatch became one of the first artisanal coffee houses with its very own “green buyer,” as coffee hunters are known in the trade.
Klatch team members, like Roastmaster Mike Perry, visit coffee farms bi-annually to ensure the farmer is committed to healthy environmental, social, and economic practices for their farm, workers, and surrounding community.
Klatch Coffee sources beans from renowned coffee-growing regions, including Latin America, Africa, and Asia. Each region offers unique flavor profiles, and Klatch Coffee carefully selects beans based on factors like altitude, soil quality, and processing methods.
The coffee and conversation that we talk about is not just with our customers, but starts with the relationships we build with the producers. I think what makes this industry so unique is so often when Mike is down cupping with a producer, there are always additional coffees on the tables, and they usually come from a producers friend, they wanted to share their coffee. And it is those opportunities that really give us the chance to share some unique coffees with our customers.
Roasting Philosophy
Using what Mike learned in college combined with lots of tasting, Mike developed his own ‘Peak of Flavor’ roast style where every roast was an experiment, he would document every variable with pen and paper (the days before “Cropster” - our roasting profile application), then taste. Mike would change one variable at a time based on taste till the roast was just right, then he would duplicate that profile.
Peak of flavor method is what Mike created when he started roasting. There were no real classes or instructions at the time, so he created a three-step method: experiment, document, taste. It the taste piece that our peak of flavor is based on.
Our methodical approach is a mix of coffee artistry and mad scientist — obsessively meticulous and thoroughly documented over many tastings to get it just right. We call it our “peak of flavor method,” and it’s earned us a spot on the world coffee stage for three decades and counting.
We repeat this process until we have the perfect ‘Peak of Flavor’ Klatch profile that varies for each bean but highlights the natural sweetness and flavor of the bean. Finally we can now refer back to our documentation to duplicate the profile or roast so our customers get that same great flavor and sweetness batch after batch. Experiment, Document, Taste…and when all is right…Duplicate.
Mike is known for his specific roasting style; one that always works to enhance and highlight the sweetness. That is why we typically like to concentrate on the development phase (from beginning of 1st crack until we are finished) but more specifically we like to extend the time the bean is in 1st crack, we find this adds sweetness.
With a background in chemical engineering, he developed the “Peak of Flavor” roasting method, blending science and artistry to bring out the best in each coffee. Under his leadership, Klatch has grown from a single café to an internationally recognized roaster, known for its award-winning coffees and direct relationships with producers.
What to Try
Named Best Espresso in the world at the World Barista Championship, Japan 2007. Initial notes of sweet dark chocolate and orange citrus later give way to a syrupy-sweet taste of wine-like berry and spice. This competition espresso won the honor as over 45 countries competed for the WBC title.
World’s Best features three legendary beans—Brazil Yellow Bourbon, Sumatra Lake Tawar, and Ethiopian Natural. Each is roasted separately using our signature peak of flavor method, then expertly blended together.
Rated 94/100 points by Ken Davids of Coffee Review, Belle Espresso offers a creamy body with a sweet finish, perfect for pairing with milk-based drinks. With notes of orange zest, cinnamon stick, semi-sweet chocolate and an undertone of walnut, our full-bodied House Espresso is a hallmark classic espresso blend.
Empire celebrates our 30 year history of passion, expertise, and a love for great coffee.
The flavorful coffees, including standard pour overs and the Spring-only Bees Knees, are highlighted as exceptional, with some coffee you can’t get anywhere else.
I take home three bags of Kenya every week, and every morning, we make the Kenya. Once in a while, I might have a little Geisha or some kind of a processed coffee that I might blend in for a change of pace, but for me, it always starts with the Kenya. I just really love the flavor and the brightness to it. Because of Mike’s passion, Klatch always ensures they have one (or more) great single origins from Kenya available at all times.