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What We Learned From This Year’s Catracha Quality Project
We are wrapping up our analysis of the 2016 Catracha Quality Project (CQP). Royal published a lot on this over the last two months, but if you haven’t been following this series, I’d suggest starting here. I’ll summarize a few of our key takeaways below. The team has started focusing on the next...
Reconsidering How We Roast Decaffeinated Coffees
Decaf is often the unfortunate stepchild in any coffee roasting operation. Most roasters offer only one decaf coffee and if there are two, then the other decaf is usually referred to as the organic decaf. Decaf is mistreated at roasting facilities around the world every morning as the first batch...
Green Coffee Analytics Part IV – Density
An undervalued, understudied coefficient in our series about analyzing green coffee (Part I - Moisture and Water Activity, Part II - Screen Size, Part III - Visual Defects) is density. The fact of the matter is that we don’t have a complete understanding of the myriad factors influencing green...
Royal Coffee is Discontinuing the Sale of Methylene Chloride Decaf
Royal Coffee has made the decision to stop trading Methylene Chloride processed decaf. Consumer health issues surrounding MC decaf have been discussed for years, and it is a widely held position that the risks, if any, are minimal or nonexistent. Handling, producing, and transporting MC is...
Decaffeination – Stimulating Discussion About Stimulant-Free Coffee
One of the big pieces of recent news at Royal is that we’ve elected to cease contracting Methylene Chloride decaf. The reasons are nuanced, but a recent conversation with founder Bob Fulmer made it clear to me that the decision was made at least in part in principle. While the impact of Royal...
C Market: Volatility Notwithstanding
This week in macroeconomics, US employment numbers disappointed expectations of higher growth for the third consecutive month as non-farm payrolls poster lower increments since July. The stock market ended two weeks of indecisive movement by dropping lower after the jobs report, accompanied by a...
Crown on the Road: A Free Educational Event Series
Royal Coffee is proud to announce Crown on the Road, a free educational event series popping up in Los Angeles & the Bay Area. Join us for this free series while we anticipate the opening of The Crown: Royal Coffee Lab & Tasting Room. UPDATE, 11/15/2016 It's been such a pleasure putting on...
Introducing Ras Enjori: The Berry King
Introduction by Chris Kornman Ethiopia is coffee’s Mecca. The Arabica species traces its origin to the western edges of the country. Ethiopia is the rare producing nation whose internal consumption equals its export volume. In Ethiopia, coffee is not just a product, not a mere cash crop, not even...
Catracha Quality Project Measures the Impact of the Ocean Journey to Oakland, California
We have been observing and collecting data in Santa Elena as part of the Catracha Quality Project to improve upon green coffee processing strategies. (See related Catracha articles here). But once the coffee is ready to ship from Honduras, we cannot ride along in the container as it makes its...
Fall Coffees – Looking at Autumn Arrivals to Spice Up the Menu
Around this time of year many roasters begin to worry if they will have enough Central American and Mexican coffee to make it till next season, or if their Sumatra is starting to taste like a musty jute sack or if their Ethiopia will start to lose its lemony luster. While those concerns are...
Examining the Relationship Between Fermentation & Quality in Santa Elena
For the last several weeks, members of the Catracha Quality Project have been presenting results of a data survey conducted during the 2016 harvest season in Santa Elena, Honduras. To go back and read some of that work -- which includes detailed process maps and an analysis of correlation between...
Can Cherry Selection Correlate to Higher Cup Scores in Catracha Coffee?
When the Catracha Quality Project began, Catracha organizers encouraged producers to focus on the quality of the coffee by selecting ripe cherry. In the Royal Blog last week, Arvin Juan presented a post-harvest process map, the result of two years of observing practices and interviewing producers....
C Market Indecisive After Recent Drop
This week in macroeconomics, American households noted an increase in income while US manufacturing surveys reported a decline in output. US stocks and indices traded mixed with conflicting views on a potential interest rate hike expressed by Federal Reserve officials ahead of chair Janet Yellen’s...
Home Gardening, Coffee Farming & Climate Change: A Coffee Trader’s Perspective
I was reading the news the other day and came upon a really disturbing article in The Guardian about climate change and coffee. The gist is that in the coming decades climate change is going to make about half of the land which is currently suitable for growing coffee no longer viable for doing...
Hanjin Shipping Enters Dire Straits
More news from the shipping lanes. Here at Royal Coffee, we are in the business not only of selling coffee, but making sure coffee gets to where it needs to be, when it needs to be there. To that end we work with a number of shipping companies, and lately some of these companies have been in dire...