Coffee People

Charley Phung, Chloé Cà Phê

Season 14 begins at SCA Houston 2025.

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Guest: Charley Phung, Chloé Cà Phê
Based: Sacramento, CA
Online: https://chloe-caphe.com • @chloe.caphe

The Coffee People Podcast traveled to the Specialty Coffee Association Expo in Houston, TX, to interview coffee pros at the Roastar, Inc. booth on the convention floor. Over two days, we recorded six episodes of Season 14. The first episode features Charley Phung, Co-Founder of Chloé Cà Phê in Sacramento, CA. We discuss how he's honoring family connections to the City's Vietnamese coffee culture, their small business roots, and why spending time with their daughter inspired such a great leap into coffee.

This was the first IRL interview I was doing at the Roastar booth, with some new equipment, including microphones, a gimbal, a tripod, and a phone. Charley made it easy. What stood out to me was his passion for sharing Vietnamese coffee and his commitment to creating family space in his work in coffee hospitality.

I’m looking forward to visiting their shop during a break in the Free Coffee Tour next month. Charley mentions their affinity for Porsche, and that there are cars in the shop. I didn’t realize what he meant by that until I checked out the @chloe.caphe Instagram after our chat.

Left: A green Porsche is parked inside a large warehouse coffee shop under hanging lamps. Right: A white Porchse with racing decals is parked in front of a coffee bar featuring a white espresso machine and white grinders. A man walks toward the car with his back to the camera. — Photos from @chloe.caphe on Instagram.

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The Chloé Cà Phê packaging is produced by the Coffee People Podcast's presenting sponsor Roastar, Inc. They are a premier coffee packaging company utilizing digital printing. Roastar enables small-to-gigantic coffee businesses tell a big story. Learn more at https://bit.ly/4gIsHff.

Three images of a coffee bag. Left: Front of the bag which is purple with a rose-gold drawing of a child's face repeated in a pattern on the bag with a white label that says "roaring river" and facts about the coffee. Middle: the side of the bag with a single image of the child's face with the note "For our daughter, Chloe." Right: The back of the bag featuring information about the business and coffee. — The lighting in the convention center wasn’t great—a bit yellowed! The vibrancy and depth of the purple on these bags is really impressive in person.

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