Klatch Coffee

Klatch Coffee is a family-owned roaster and café chain based in Rancho Cucamonga, California, founded in 1993 by Mike Perry, a former chemical engineer, and Cindy Perry.¹²³ The first café opened under the name “Coffee Klatch”, and the company still describes itself as “family-owned and operated since 1993”.⁴⁵

It matters to this wiki for a specific reason: Klatch is where record-breaking auction coffee actually gets drunk. Most of the buyers in these notes — Saza Coffee, Julith Coffee, JD.com — are named on the bid sheet. Klatch is the one that repeatedly took the winning lot from Elida Estate, roasted it, and put it on a menu board at a suburban café, which is how “the world’s most expensive coffee” became a number ordinary people encountered: $75 a cup.

The company

Attribute	Detail
Founded	1993, Rancho Cucamonga, California — opened as “Coffee Klatch”
Founders	Mike Perry — green buyer and roastmaster, chemical engineering background — with Cindy Perry
Leadership	Heather Perry — chief executive; Mike Perry — roastmaster, green buyer and CFO; Holly Perry — retail director
Legal name	Klatch Coffee, Inc.
Headquarters	8767 Onyx Ave, Rancho Cucamonga, CA 91730
Cafés	Southern California only — Chino Hills, Eastvale, Fontana (two), Fullerton, Ontario, Pasadena, Rancho Cucamonga (two), Redlands, Redondo Beach, San Dimas
Model	Sources, roasts and brews its own coffee — “Peak of Flavor” roast style

The 1993 founding date and Mike Perry’s chemical-engineering background come from Klatch’s own newsroom boilerplate, which describes it as “founded in Rancho Cucamonga, Calif. in 1993 by Mike Perry, a former chemical engineer who blends science with a passion for great coffee.” The four family roles and the café list come from the company’s own family page, checked directly. Note the change since this note was first written: Heather Perry is now listed as chief executive rather than vice president, so an earlier promotion is the natural reading — but no source consulted here dates it.

How it grew

Klatch did not start as an auction buyer. It started as one suburban café, and the thirty years between that and the $75 cup are worth laying out, because they explain how a small Southern California business ended up bidding against Japanese and Chinese buyers for the same lots.

	When	What happened
1	1993	First café opens in Rancho Cucamonga as “Coffee Klatch”, in a building that had previously been a winery
2	1997	Second shop opens in San Dimas
3	December 2012	A Klatch opens in Terminal 7 (United) at LAX, run with the airport-concessions operator Crews 1972
4	2018–2019	Buys and sells record Best of Panama lots from Elida Estate (see below)
5	2023	Marks 30 years, releasing a “Signature Vineyard Blend” named for the first café’s former-winery site

The winery detail and the 1997 San Dimas opening come from a roaster profile;⁶ the LAX date from the concessions partner’s own brand page; the anniversary blend from the company’s own announcement.⁷

To verify

When Klatch left LAX and San Francisco. Klatch’s current family page lists eleven cafés, all inland or coastal Southern California, and does not list LAX or San Francisco — both of which earlier reporting placed in the chain (the LAX stall from December 2012, the San Francisco store from 2019, per the 2019 trade coverage cited below). Closures are the obvious explanation and airport and city leases turn over routinely, but nothing consulted here announces either exit, so treat the disappearance as an unexplained gap rather than a confirmed closure.

The $75 cup

In May 2019, Klatch bought 10 pounds of the Elida Geisha Natural that had won Best of Panama in 2018 at a then-record 803 per pound** green (unroasted). Roasted, it priced out at **1,200 a pound, and Klatch sold it by the cup at $75 for eight ounces across its Redondo Beach, San Dimas, Ontario and Rancho Cucamonga shops and its LAX location.⁸

The following season Klatch went again, this time for the lot that broke four figures: the Elida Geisha 1029, which scored 95.25 at Best of Panama 2019 and sold at **1,029 per pound** — the first coffee ever to pass 1,000/lb. Klatch poured it at roughly $100 a cup at its Rancho Cucamonga roastery and its newly opened San Francisco store, and shipped it nationwide. Trade press recorded it as Klatch’s third record-breaking coffee from the Lamastus family’s Panamanian estates in three consecutive years.⁹

	Year	Lot	Score	Green price	What Klatch charged
1	2018	Elida Geisha Natural (Best of Panama winner)	94+	$803/lb	**75** per 8 oz cup; 1,200/lb roasted
2	2019	Elida Geisha 1029 (Green Tip Natural)	95.25	$1,029/lb	~$100 per cup

Mike Perry was not only a buyer of the 2019 lot but a judge of the competition that crowned it: as an international judge at Best of Panama, he gave the Elida Geisha 1029 a score of 97+, “the highest score he’s ever awarded any coffee” (Tea & Coffee Trade Journal). Judging and buying at the same auction is normal practice in this world — the judging panels are drawn from the roasters who bid — but it is worth knowing when reading a score.

To verify

Who actually bought the 2019 record lot. Klatch’s own release and the trade press say Klatch purchased the Elida Geisha 1029. The producers, however, credited Saza Coffee with leading the buying consortium, naming Klatch, Willoughbys Coffee & Tea and Dragonfly Coffee Roasters as the other members¹⁰ — which is what the Elida Estate and Saza Coffee notes already record. The likeliest explanation is that every consortium member announced the win as its own, but Klatch’s exact share of the lot is not documented in anything consulted here. Do not describe Klatch as the sole buyer.

The people

Mike Perry — co-founder, green buyer, roastmaster and CFO. His engineering training is the stated basis for Klatch’s “Peak of Flavor” roasting approach — the idea being to stop the roast where the bean’s own flavour is fullest rather than pushing it dark, so nothing tastes burnt. He travels to producing countries each harvest to cup and select coffee.¹¹

Cindy Perry — co-founder and Mike’s wife. The company’s own family page describes her as “the calm and sweet presence” of the business rather than giving her an operational title, so what she actually does day to day is not documented publicly.

Holly Perry — retail director, responsible for the café side of the business.

Heather Perry — his daughter and Klatch’s chief executive. She is a two-time United States Barista Champion and placed second at the 2007 World Barista Championship, and she later served as president of the Specialty Coffee Association.¹²¹³ A barista championship is a timed competition where competitors serve espresso, milk drinks and a signature drink to judges — winning the national title twice is rare.

To verify

Heather Perry’s exact titles and years. Both national titles are now confirmed as 2003 and 2007 — see Heather Perry, where Wikipedia’s champions list and a contemporaneous account of the 2007 championship agree. What remains unverified is her institutional record: no source gives term years for her Specialty Coffee Association presidency. Separately, Klatch’s company profile claims the coffee it used took “World’s Best Espresso” at the 2007 World Barista Championships¹⁴ — a self-description that sits awkwardly against the independently reported result, which is a runner-up finish overall. Whether “World’s Best Espresso” was a real side category or marketing shorthand needs checking against SCA/WBC archives. The same wording turns up again on Klatch’s airport-concessions partner’s brand page — “awarded ‘Best Espresso in the World’ at the 2007 World Barista Championship” — but a partner reprinting a brand’s own boilerplate is not a second source, it is the same claim travelling.

To verify

Mike Perry’s degree, and when he got it. One source calls him a “bio-chemical engineering grad from the University of California at Riverside” who applied that training to start Klatch in 1993 (Crews 1972, confirmed via WebFetch). Another says the second café opened in 1997 “just after Mike Perry graduated from UC Riverside” — which would put the degree four years after the company was founded, not before it. Both cannot be right. Klatch’s own boilerplate only says “a former chemical engineer” and gives no university or year, so the university, the exact field and the timing are all unconfirmed.

Roaster of the Year, 2009

Klatch’s own profile has long claimed a 2009 Micro Roaster of the Year title. That claim now checks out: *Roast* magazine’s own award archive lists “Coffee Klatch” as its 2009 micro-category Roaster of the Year.¹⁵ The name on the award is the company’s earlier one, which is consistent with the 2007 press release calling it “Coffee Klatch Roasting.”

Roast is the US roasting trade magazine, and the award judges the business as a whole — sourcing, quality control, staff, community work — rather than a single coffee. See Cafe Kreyol, the 2023 macro winner, and Equator Coffees, which took the 2010 macro title under its earlier name Equator Estates Coffee.

Sourcing

Klatch describes its buying as direct trade — long-term relationships with individual farms rather than anonymous commodity purchasing, symbolised in its own marketing by “a simple handshake”. That is a company claim about its own practice, not a certification: unlike Fairtrade or organic, “direct trade” has no independent auditor behind it. What is independently visible is the Elida Estate relationship, which shows up in the auction record three years running.

Alongside the direct-trade coffees, Klatch sells organic and Fair Trade ranges as distinct collections on its own shop (Klatch Coffee — All About Family, confirmed via WebFetch). Those two, unlike direct trade, are audited: organic certification is enforced by government-accredited inspectors, and Fair Trade by the certifier that licenses the mark. A roaster needs its own certificate to put either word on a bag it roasted, even when the farm is already certified.

To verify

The exact certifications Klatch holds. A partner brand page states that Klatch is “certified under the USDA National Organic Program as an ‘Organic Coffee Roaster’” and holds “certification by Trans Fair USA to roast and sell ‘Fair Trade’ coffee” (Crews 1972, confirmed via WebFetch). TransFair USA renamed itself Fair Trade USA in 2011, so that wording is at minimum dated, and the page reads as brand copy rather than a certificate. Klatch’s own site confirms it sells organic and Fair Trade coffee but does not publish certificate numbers or a certifying agent. Whether the certifications are current, and whether they cover the whole roastery or only selected coffees, is unconfirmed.

To verify

When “Coffee Klatch” became “Klatch Coffee.” The original name is now confirmed: the company’s own history says the first café opened in Rancho Cucamonga as “Coffee Klatch” (Klatch Coffee — All About Family, confirmed via WebFetch), and a 2007 press release still calls the business “Coffee Klatch Roasting.” A local feature reports the name was flipped when the business incorporated, because “coffee was the conversation,” and separately traces the original name to Cindy Perry’s Dutch heritage — koffieklatsch, the word for chatting over coffee.¹⁶ No source consulted dates the rename, and the same feature concedes the exact opening day in 1993 is “lost to history.”

Why it belongs in this wiki

Record auction prices are usually quoted as green-coffee figures — dollars per pound paid to the farm. Klatch is one of the few places where you can see what happens on the other end of that chain: an 803/lb lot becomes a 75 cup, roughly a 9× markup over the roasted wholesale price once labour, waste, roasting loss and scarcity are priced in. It is the clearest available worked example of Premiumisation reaching an actual customer, and a useful counterweight to the assumption that record prices stay locked inside a collector market. Compare Angelino’s Coffee, the other US roaster to take a world-record lot.

Related

• Elida Estate · Best of Panama · Best of Panama results archive · Wilford Lamastus
• Saza Coffee — co-buyer and credited consortium lead on the 2019 record lot · Dragonfly Coffee Roasters — fellow member of that consortium · Angelino’s Coffee
• Buying consortium — why “who bought it” has more than one honest answer
• Geisha · Natural process · Coffee scoring · Cupping
• Specialty Coffee Association · World Barista Championship · Premiumisation
• Mike Perry · Heather Perry · Cindy Perry · Holly Perry — the four family members Klatch names
• Cafe Kreyol · Equator Coffees — fellow Roast magazine Roaster of the Year winners

Official links

• Official site — Klatch Coffee
• Official site — Klatch Coffee, “All About Family” (company history, family roles and café list)

Footnotes

1. Klatch Coffee — newsroom: Elida Geisha Green Tip Natural ↩

2. Crews 1972 — Klatch Coffee brand partnership page ↩

3. Crema.co — Klatch roaster page ↩

4. Klatch Coffee — “All About Family” company history and family page ↩

5. Klatch Coffee — official site ↩

6. Morning Wines — Klatch Coffee roaster wiki entry ↩

7. Klatch Coffee — “Klatch Celebrates 30 Years With Their Signature Vineyard Blend” (company release) ↩

8. CBS Los Angeles — World’s most expensive coffee costs $75 a cup ↩

9. Tea & Coffee Trade Journal — Klatch Coffee serves most expensive cup of coffee ↩

10. AgroNosotros — Elida Estate Gesha earns $1,029 per pound ↩

11. Beanz — Klatch Coffee roaster profile ↩

12. Chief Executive magazine — Heather Perry contributor page ↩

13. Coffee Explorer — 2007 U.S. Barista Champion ↩

14. LinkedIn — Klatch Coffee, Inc. company profile ↩

15. Roast magazine — Roaster of the Year award archive ↩

16. Daily Bulletin — Klatch Coffee, still family-owned, marks 30 years in Rancho Cucamonga (26 September 2023) ↩