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Guatemala: Hardship & Hope
Editor's note: This article was first published in Volume 74 of Coffee T&I Magazine in January 2020. It is reprinted here with permission, and you may download it in its original format here, courtesy the publisher. The only time I’ve ever actually sprinted through an airport to catch a...
Grading Green Coffee for Physical Defects
Editor's Note: This article first appeared in the Jan/Feb 2020 edition of Roast Magazine under the Column "Technically Speaking" and is reprinted here with permission. You can view and download the article in its original format here. Sections of the article also appeared in Part III of our Green...
March 2020 at the Crown: Classes & Events Digest
Identifying Defects in Coffee March 5, 2020 09:30 AM (PST) Learn to grade coffee in this class focused on identifying both visual and taste flaws in the green beans. This class will cover both physical defects in green coffee and primary sensory defects. (Yep, we’ll be tasting them!) Coffee...
Roasting on the Ikawa – Updates & Comments (Part II)
The previous installment in this series outlined some challenges that presented themselves while using our Ikawa roasters here at Royal and The Crown. Below, we’ll look at the journey of creating roast profiles and making adjustments to suit many different purposes. After getting our machines back...
Unpacking the Specialty Coffee Transaction Guide
Editor's note: This article first ran on February 17, 2020 in Daily Coffee News; it is republished here with permission. The Specialty Coffee Transaction Guide released its latest and largest update just a few days before the end of 2019. The Guide itself is a continuously evolving compendium of...
Royal Coffee Will Be Closed on Presidents’ Day 2020
The Royal Coffee office and Oakland warehouse will be closed on Monday, February 17th in observation of Presidents' Day. Please note that Caffeinated Cargo, Costa Oro and Dupuy Warehouses will also be closed and adjust your ordering schedule accordingly. Please email or call your trader for more...
Decaf, Methylene Chloride, and Royal Coffee
This week, Daily Coffee News published a summary of a surprisingly readable white paper by the Clean Label Project about decaffeinated coffee and the dangers of Methylene Chloride (or dichloromethane, CH2Cl2 for the scientists in the room). It circled the office this morning -- senior trader Jeri...
Nahún Rodríguez: Photos from Honduras
Occasionally, Royal Coffee will receive photos from origin that really stand out. We'd like to take this opportunity to introduce you to Nahún Rodríguez, who works in Honduras and captures life there through his lens. You can find more of his work on Instagram @nahunrodriguez.hn Nahún Rodríguez:...
Looking Towards the Future of Guatemalan Coffee
Editor's note: This article first ran in Daily Coffee News on January 14, 2020. It is reprinted here with permission. Guatemalan coffee has long held a place of honor among specialty coffee roasters. Regional names like Antigua, Cobán, and Huehuetenango are familiar to many, and are frequently...
February 2020 at the Crown: Classes & Events Digest
Tasting the Coffee Flavor Wheel Feb 6, 2020 03:00 PM (PST) An interactive tasting of the Sensory Lexicon of coffee using reference samples from fruits, spices, candies and many others. Go to event site Coffee Tasting: Southern Hemisphere Coffee Feb 7, 2020 01:00 PM (PST) Free, open to the public...
Roasting on the Ikawa – Updates & Comments (Part I)
Flashback to April 2017, SCA Expo in Seattle. (For context, The Crown -- the building -- is still nearly 2 years from completion.) At Expo, one of the buzzworthy booths was a funny-looking small-batch electric roaster called Ikawa. You’ve surely heard of them by now, the Bluetooth-enabled device...
Some Real Talk on Geshas
Chris Kornman, Education and Lab Manager of The Crown: Royal Coffee Lab & Tasting Room briefly discusses the fabled Gesha coffee variety, the evolution of the plant's genetics and flavor profiles in anticipation of some new Crown Jewel releases. For more information on coffee plant types,...
Burundi: Passionate People and Exquisite Flavors
Editor's note: This article first ran in Coffee, Tea & I Magazine Vol 72 (Download a PDF here) and is reprinted with permission. Burundi: Passionate people and exquisite flavors The clay is red as bricks, stark against the lush greens of banana trees, tea leaves, and coffee plants. The colors...
When Café met Mezcal in Oaxaca
by Doris Garrido They say that in Oaxaca the mezcal is taken with coffee! -Lila Downs - Mexican singer Mezcal is an agave-based distilled drink from Oaxaca, as well as other states in México. I've found many stories about how mezcal was born but for this article, I am going to talk about the one...
January 2020 at the Crown: Classes & Events Digest
Coffee Tasting: What is Honey Process? Jan 3, 2020 01:00 PM (PST) The first free, open-to-the-public coffee tasting of the new year, we'll try some Honey process coffees. Go to event site Intro to Coffee Jan 11, 2020 02:00 PM (PST) A beginner-level class for enthusiasts, we'll demystify the...