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Royal Coffee Ethiopia Origin Trip 2017
Royal Coffee recently took a trip to Ethiopia, where we met with various exporters and producers, and explored the country from bustling Addis Ababa to remote Gedeb. We visited the production facilities that have brought us such wonderful Ethiopian coffee over the years, and our customers were...
New Crown Curriculum Classes in March & April
We're adding a number of new classes to the calendar in March and April for 2018 before we head off to Expo in Seattle. Fact & Folklore: Coffee's Culture & Cultivation - a Interactive Lecture & Tasting at Pulley Collective - NEW! Tuesday, April 10 @ Pulley Collective in Oakland - $20...
Cacao + Coffee Roasting Summit
Join Royal Coffee, Inc. and friends for an exploration of roasting knowledge, from cacao to coffee. Together, we will taste cacao, chocolate, and coffee samples with a focus on flavor changes caused by roasting, and discuss in detail the significance of raw material composition and heat...
Back on the Horse
Harar has always held a special place in my heart. One of the very first coffee trips I ever took involved meeting The Man in Harar, Mohamed Abdullahi Ogsadey, quite literally a Somali King with four wives and nearly 50 children. I was seven. For years, Royal Coffee was the exclusive...
Barranquilla es la Capital de la Salsa
If you haven’t recently studied a good map of Colombia, I recommend it. I have a cheap but pretty good atlas I picked up on sale when the Emeryville Borders went out of business a number of years back. I like to study it occasionally; it’s my idea of a good time. Running South to North from the...
Potato Taste Defect: What Roasters Need to Know
Editor's note: A version of this article first appeared in Daily Coffee News on December 20, 2017. Spuds, yams, tubers – baked, boiled, fried, mashed… There’s almost no limit to the versatility of the root vegetable we often associate with Idaho or Ireland. It might surprise you to know that there...
Understanding Extraction
What really happens during extraction? There are some things we know, and some things that are still a little muddled. This week I did a few experiments in hopes of tightening up our understanding of how extraction works. What we know about extraction: We know that water is an excellent solvent....
A Coffee Buyer’s Glossary of Contract Terms
Editor's Note: A version of this article first appeared in Perfect Daily Grind on November 28, 2017. There are a lot of perks to being a coffee buyer: traveling to origin, meeting producers, experiencing the coffee harvest. As glamorous as this role can be there is a ton of work that comes between...
Producer Interview: Edith Meza Sagarvinaga of Finca Tasta in Satipo, Peru
As part of Royal Coffee’s continued series of interviews with coffee producers, I am pleased to introduce Edith Meza Sagarvinaga, a coffee producer from Peru who recently sold coffee to Royal Coffee for the first time. Edith and her brother Ivan are second generation coffee producers and started...
咖啡产业链之危地马拉见闻
Chris Kornman近期刊发在Royal Newsletter的关于产业供应链的文章很及时，他的感受与我最近到访危地马拉的经历有着异曲同工之妙。 正如Chris所说，咖啡处理和出口是与农业生产过程分开的两个独立环节，对于Royal的很多危地马拉咖啡供应商来说这是一个不争的事实。 出口商CAMEC 例如，来自危地马拉不同产区包括节枝庄园、Huixoc庄园、Limonar庄园以及安提瓜火山地区的的羊皮纸咖啡，都集中到一个名为CAMEC的危地马拉城的咖啡出口公司处理厂储存，这家家族企业建立于上世纪50年代，Royal和这家公司有着长期的合作关系。...
Crown Analysis: CJ1143 – 皇冠宝石系列之 埃塞尔比亚 Banko Fuafuate产区日晒
Introduction by Chris Kornman 简介 无论是自然处理法，还是日晒处理或者任何你所习惯的叫法，这种传统的咖啡处理加工方式都源自于埃塞俄比亚，直至今日几乎全球所有的咖啡产地都还沿用着这种咖啡处理的方式。将咖啡果整个带着果肉和果皮直接干燥处理，就像晒葡萄干一样，无论怎样演变和改进其中的过程，其根源都是埃塞俄比亚的日晒处理方法。在埃塞俄比亚，你还可以随处可见很多小农户将收集来的咖啡浆果晾晒在晒场或者直接放在草地上进行干燥和晾晒处理。和很多咖啡出口国不同，埃塞俄比亚是唯一一个全部咖啡都用来出口的国家，其每年的出口量就等于每年全国的咖啡产量。 Banko...
Origin Trip Invitation: Huila, Colombia – January 2018
Royal Coffee and InConexus Colombia present a cupping of 30 specialty coffees selected from over 200 entries. Royal has been working with Inconexus since 2010 and we have seen them deliver quality improvements and incredible relationships with farmers. See it for yourself in Huila this January....
Royal Coffee Responds to the SCA’s Deferred Candidacy Policy
As a founding member of the SCAA and continuing member of the SCA, Royal Coffee does not view the Association’s decision to hold competition events in Dubai nor its recently published Deferred Candidacy policy with apathy or disinterest. The future of the Association and our participation in its...
The Relationship Between Water Activity and the Maillard Reaction in Roasting
Editor's note: This article originally appeared in Daily Coffee News on November 22, 2017. In what might be a foolhardy attempt to correlate two of coffee’s most complicated concepts, I’ve dedicated a significant portion of the past few months to examining the relationship between the water...
How Does Adding Sugar Affect the Taste of Coffee?
Sugar is not a common topic of conversation in specialty coffee - at least, not in the 'one lump or two?' sense. While focusing on how to improve the taste and quality of our product, we’ve forgotten that the vast majority of coffee consumers take their coffee with cream and sugar. Without the...