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What Roasters Should Know about Ongoing COVID Freight Impacts, Costs, and Congestion
What Roasters Should Know about Ongoing COVID Freight Impacts, Costs, and Congestion By Jodi Louws COVID freight impacts continue, and even seem more severe at this time than they did in early 2020. We’re seeing export delays, longer shipment times and transshipment delays, container...
Ghost Pepper Mint Mocha — Assume Nothing! A Year of Recipes
"Assume Nothing!" A mantra for The Crown as we worked towards opening our doors in March of 2019, the phrase became a Menu section, encouraging our visitors to drop their preconceptions and be open to new and delicious experiences. And now it's the title of a recipe series, for you to recreate at...
Facing Machismo: a Producer’s Perspective
Editor's note: This article first ran in the September 2020 issue of Coffee T & I Magazine, and is reprinted here with permission. Facing Machismo: a Producer’s Perspective By Sandra Elisa Loofbourow Growing up in a matriarchal Latino household, I was taught two things: that a) women are just...
Coffee Processing Styles and Terminology (Plus Flowchart)
Editor's note: This article first appeared on Daily Coffee News on Dec. 10, 2020, and is republished here with permission. Coffee Processing Styles and Terminology (Plus Flowchart) Infographic by Evan Gilman, Words by Chris Kornman Led by zeitgeisty processing methods such as anaerobic...
Coffee Processing – A Flowchart
In anticipation of a class on fermentation and processing styles in coffee, I asked my colleague Evan to help me create a unique visualization tool to convey accurately and quickly what people mean when they say “pulped natural” or “triple washed,” for example. You’ll note the color-coded...
Bourbon’s Botanical Origins and the Evolution of Laurina
Editor's note: This article first ran in Roast Magazine's September/October 2020 issue, and is republished here with permission. Roast has generously provided a pdf of the article, which you can access here. Article Summary Bourbon coffee traces its global influence back to Réunion Island, where a...
Blending Water: Some Important Math to Help You Mix Waters of Different TDS
Blending Water Some Important Math to Help You Mix Waters of Different TDS Tasting Room Director Sandra Elisa Loofbourow and I recently ran into a difficult problem to solve at the Crown, and wanted to share some of the work it took to figure out how to mix two different waters to achieve a...
Our Top Picks for Espresso + Good for Espresso Webinar
Looking to learn all about Espresso? Join us for our first-ever webinar "Good for Espresso", a deep dive into one of our favorite brew methods on Thursday, October 8th at 11 AM PST. The Crown’s Alex Taylor, Candice Madison, Chris Kornman, Elise Becker, and Sandra Elisa Loofbourow will chat,...
Roasting Alone in the Time of COVID 19
Editor's note: Lowell Powell, partner to Royal's Marketing & Outreach Director and Catracha Coffee Founder Mayra Orellana-Powell, is the architect of the Catracha Quality Project and a driver behind many of the coffee processing innovations taking place on the ground in Santa Elena's coffee...
Consent and Participation: On Photography at Origin
Editor's note: A different version of this article originally appeared in Daily Coffee News on August 4, 2020. Consent and Participation: On Photography at Origin Consent in photography is a complex topic, and one that has been explored in great depth by anthropologists, philosophers, legal...
Impeachy Queen — Assume Nothing! A Year of Recipes
"Assume Nothing!" A mantra for The Crown as we worked towards opening our doors in March of 2019, the phrase became a Menu section, encouraging our visitors to drop their preconceptions and be open to new and delicious experiences. And now it's the title of a recipe series, for you to recreate at...
A Note from Our Tasting Room Director on Reopening The Crown
I’ll be honest – I was nervous about reopening the Tasting Room. Of course, I had good reason. The pandemic was (and is still) in full swing – in fact cases in the Bay Area are on an upswing. Our block of Broadway has also been the stage for some of the biggest protests against police violence...
Tamarind & Makrut Lime Soda — Assume Nothing! A Year of Recipes
"Assume Nothing!" A mantra for The Crown as we worked towards opening our doors in March of 2019, the phrase became a Menu section, encouraging our visitors to drop their preconceptions and be open to new and delicious experiences. And now it's the title of a recipe series, for you to recreate at...
Ethiopia: Coffee’s Heirloom
Publisher's note: check out our fresh crop Ethiopias. In December 2018, a small group of us drove the mercifully paved high route from Yirga Alem, in Sidama, to Shakiso, in Guji, arriving in the dark. Early the next morning on our way to the farms we stopped at a café for fatira, a flaky breakfast...
Roasting on the Ikawa – Updates & Comments (Part III)
The long and winding road of Ikawa profiling led me to pen previous articles on challenges and some new ‘from-scratch” sample roast profiles I have been employing regularly for Crown Jewels and other coffees. Yet, I’ve long been seeking a low-airflow alternative to the high fan speeds I tend to...