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Overcoming Rust in El Salvador
I recently returned from a 26 day coffee trek through Central America and Mexico with filmmaker Sarah Gerber. We interviewed, filmed, and photographed Royal’s coffee producing partners with an eye towards bringing the production of coffee, in living color, home to Royal’s coffee consuming clients....
The Logic Behind Rapidly Rising Coffee Prices
The Logic Behind Rapidly Rising Coffee Prices by Max Nicholas-Fulmer The New York “C” Market has rallied 60 cents per pound in under 3 weeks on concerns of drought conditions in some of the main Brazilian growing regions. This dry weather is occurring during the cherry development phase of the...
Ethiopia Red Cherry Initiative
If you ever read this blog, you may notice that we harp on ripe cherry selection at the farm level as fundamental to maximizing quality. I believe that any coffee can be improved through adherence to using only fully ripe, red fruit (or orange, yellow, or pink). As you may also know, it is not...
Towards the Creation of Better Coffee
Towards the Creation of Better Coffee by Max Nicholas-Fulmer If there is any single coffee dogma which applies everywhere in the world regardless of varietal or process, it is that harvesting only ripe red cherry always results in a better cup, period. If all the quality improvement initiatives...
Ethiopia, How Do I Love Thee?
Ethiopia, How Do I Love Thee? by Max Nicholas-Fulmer My Albanian rootstock biases my temperament towards hyperbole, it’s true. But hot-damn are the Ethiopian coffees gonna be good this year! Full disclosure: I love Ethiopia. I go there a lot. The food is delicious, the culture is vibrant, the...
Some Notes on ‘Notes’
Hopefully you have noticed the new section on our website called “Producer Profiles.” We are working diligently to compile info and photos for all of the coffees we offer and the producers we represent. The goal is to share as much information as possible about the land and people who produce the...
Retro Mandheling
Throughout the 1980’s and early 1990’s Royal sold a couple of different Sumatra types. Our most popular, simply called Mandheling Grade 1, made up most of our volume and still does. Back then most “Mandheling” was grown between Medan and the Northern shore of Lake Toba. Occasionally we also sold a...