Cloud City Coffee was founded in 2002 by Jill Killen in Seattle's Maple Leaf neighborhood as a gathering place built around great coffee. Killen earned her Q Grader certification in 2017 and began roasting the following year from a facility in Seattle's Georgetown district. The roastery sources single origin coffees from producers in Ethiopia, Colombia, Guatemala, Kenya, and beyond, maintaining direct relationships with farmers and sharing detailed origin stories for each lot. An Ethiopia Lecho Torka won a 2022 Good Food Award, and Coffee Review has scored offerings like the Sumatra Lintong Triple Picked Reserve at 93 points. Cloud City remains woman owned and operated, with a longstanding commitment to community accessibility that began with dollar self serve drip coffee in its early days.