Klatch Coffee: Where specialty coffee has been thicker than water since 1993
Cold Coffee Success Stories is a series that focuses on pioneering companies in the cold coffee space and their unique journeys. Today, we feature Klatch Coffee, a Southern Californian specialty coffee company that puts family at the heart of its work.
Southern California is one of the world’s great specialty coffee enclaves: a Google search of coffee roasters in the region prompts a truly remarkable list of award-winning and industry-leading roasters. Klatch Coffee is right at the top of the results.
The West Coast coffee culture shares as many similarities as it does differences with its East Coast sister. Cold coffee trends are growing, specialty coffee culture is well-entrenched, and customers seek quality and convenience. However, in the warmer Californian climate, a slightly slower lifestyle is encouraged, and a slightly better customer experience is expected.
Klatch Coffee recently began its 30th year of award-winning coffee roasting, led by founder and roastmaster Mike Perry. His two daughters, Heather and Holly Perry, are CEO and director of retail, respectively. Specialty coffee runs in the blood at Klatch, and we spoke with Natasha Lozano, who leads art direction, packaging, and sourcing for the SoCal caffeine dealer.
Where has Klatch focused its attention in the past, and how has that evolved?
Founder Mike began the Klatch project in 1993, bringing a chemical engineering background to a coffee industry that was firmly in its Second Wave, dominated by large national brands like Starbucks and Dunkin’.
Coffee’s Second Wave reframed the concept of coffee as a social beverage instead of a purely functional morning pick-me-up. Coffee shops began to become third spaces, environments that acted as extensions of the home and were inherently more relaxed and inviting.
Starting up almost seven years before the Third Wave really took hold, Mike and Klatch’s focus on high-quality, artisanal coffee and cafe experience was well ahead of its time. Then, as specialty coffee began to spread, Heather became a two-time US barista champion, winning the competition in 2003 and 2007.
Since those early beginnings, Klatch has become one of the most decorated coffee companies in the US – 2007 World’s Best Espresso, 2009 Micro Roaster of Year, 2012 America’s Best Coffee House, 2016, ‘17, and ‘18 Golden Bean, and 2016 America’s Best Cold Brew.
“Klatch is a family-owned and operated organisation, and we’re laser-focused on sourcing, roasting, and brewing our own coffee using our signature ‘peak-of-flavour’ method,” says Natasha.
“We recently moved our roasting operations into a newer, larger facility in Rancho Cucamonga so that we have more space for shipping and receiving, additional roasting and packing equipment, and more office space for our growing team. The new space has provided us with additional operating capacity to support our growth.”
Klatch operates seven cafes across Los Angeles today, and in 2024, it added five new locations in partnership with Sprouts Farmers Market, a national supermarket chain. The company also introduced its first entry into the RTD space, a premium bottled espresso that can be used to make hot or cold coffee beverages at home.
How Klatch approaches brand, packaging, and design
The global coffee sector is an increasingly competitive environment. High streets and supermarket aisles are crowded with brands competing for attention. A watertight approach to packaging, brand aesthetics, and sustainability are essential elements to success.
“Whether it’s bagged whole bean coffee or our new Ready-To-Go Espresso, all Klatch Coffee products share a product packaging approach across our e-commerce and retail café channels,” Natasha says.
“Packaging needs to protect coffee while it’s in transit to e-commerce customers, but it also needs to look great on shelves. Product packaging is an important way to differentiate some of our product lines. Our Pearl Reserve, for example, highlights distinctive coffees from some of the world’s best producers, so we ship them in a special box with iridescent foiling. It’s important that the customer experience matches the quality of the coffee inside.
“Beyond aesthetics, our packaging supports our mission of education and connecting, sharing the coffee’s origin story and celebrating producers, roasting methods, and brewing methods. By deepening the customers’ knowledge, we aim to enhance their experience.”
Klatch’s approach to packaging is an ideal example of how to appeal to modern consumers. It combines eye-catching aesthetics with compelling brand storytelling and protective, robust, and sustainable materials.
“For our reserve coffee products and trio gift boxes, we use paper materials that can be easily recycled in most local curbside programs,” Natasha adds.
“Our new RTD is packaged in glass, which can also be recycled or repurposed. We’re still seeking a supplier that can help us with a sustainable solution for coffee bags, one that offers comprehensive printing customisation, one-way degassing values and resealable closure capabilities – we hope to offer a compostable solution like this in the future.”
Specialty coffee, cold coffee, and future trends
“About 70% of the beverages we serve at Klatch are cold,” says Natasha.
“Cold coffee is an important growth area for us. Over the years, there has definitely been an increase in the cold beverage percentage in the sales mix, perhaps even more so for us than for brands operating in colder climates. We have long, warm summers and mild winters, so we still see high cold coffee consumption in December.
“We continue to see cold brew as a growth category. Young people continue to move away from alcoholic beverages and sodas. With sales in these categories declining, we expect growth in alternative categories to continue. Our new RTD concentrate comes with a recipe card that reflects the changing landscape of consumption, offering our customers recipe guides for both traditional beverages and modern alternatives, like espresso tonic.
“In our brick-and-mortar locations, both cold brew and other cold beverages are very popular menu items, and we supply our wholesale customers with cold brew concentrate in larger containers for use in their own cafés, bakeries, and similar. This helps them meet the growing demand for the cold brew category.”
Klatch’s sales mix is not unique among American coffee shop businesses. Even the largest national retailers report that cold coffee has well overtaken hot options. Cold brew is a natural choice for many seeking a more refreshing coffee experience, but also one that is healthier.
The choice to package their RTD cold coffee in glass illustrates their commitment to both brand aesthetics and sustainability concerns. Indeed, coffee businesses can opt for even more sustainable RTD packaging options, including bag-in-box, flexible pouches, and aluminium cans.
The fact that a business with the specialty coffee pedigree of Klatch is seeing a higher proportion of cold coffee sales, launching RTD coffee products, and supplying wholesale partners with cold brew concentrate is a testament to the broader cold coffee wave.
Just as Mike’s early foray into coffee roasting predicted the boom of specialty coffee on the West Coast, Klatch’s current focus on cold coffee development is equally telling. As the company continues to expand its retail footprint and product portfolio, even more cold coffee innovation will undoubtedly come.
It seems that where Klatch Coffee goes, others follow.
To source your own line of sustainable cold brew packaging materials, visit Cold Brew Pak or contact our team directly. We offer immensely customisable, biodegradable packaging solutions, including bag-in-box, cold brew pouches, custom cans, and BPA-free bottles.
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