The Royal Blog

by Isabella Vitaliano Welcome to our Specialty Green Coffee Cupping Series on Thursday where we highlight recent arrivals. We select 5 coffees to cup at The Crown and provide more in-depth tasting notes, coffee background, and usage recommendations. October 12 29619 Colombia Huila Acevedo A   A great story has great flavor notes to accompany it. […]

by Isabella Vitaliano A take on coffee and caffeine’s evolution   Coffee’s history is rich with irony in that for a substance so stimulating and enlivening, the origin of the fruit remains fuzzy to this day. Origin stories vary and there is no confirmed evidence revealing where coffee grew in Africa or even who among the […]

In most industries, words like “specialty,” “premium,” “top grade” or “gourmet” are often regarded as marketing buzz, while also vaguely designating a degree of quality above what might be commonly available on the bottom shelf of grocery aisle – the existence of “specialty” infers the existence of “ordinary.”   The coffee industry has embraced the word […]

Learn how to optimize your coffee shipping with key ordering tips, cost-saving strategies, and freight best practices. Avoid extra fees, manage delivery delays, and streamline logistics for a smoother coffee supply chain.

As of this writing, the price of the most actively traded NY coffee futures contract (SEP23) sits at 155.80.  This is a 24 percent drop from the 6-month high of 205.25.  It is worth looking back over the past half year to see how we ended up at this level and also to better understand […]

Editor’s Note: You can view all of Chris’ pallet picks on one page here.   If I were running a coffee roasting business and saw Royal’s full pallet promotion, I’d be thrilled. I’d probably then visit Royal’s website only to be completely overwhelmed with the choices. Fortunately for everyone, I’m not running a roasting business, but […]

News has been making the rounds this week of Fairtrade International’s increase to prices paid for coffee, the first such announcement in more than a decade.  New pricing takes effect for contracts beginning on August 1, 2023, (it does not impact contracts drawn prior to that date.) For washed arabica, the cost increases from $1.40 […]

It’s been said that those who stand for nothing will fall into a constant state of decline.  As an outspoken critic of “my way or the highway” approaches to education and one-size-fits-all solutions to roasting and quality control concerns in specialty coffee, it may not surprise you to learn that I take issue with the […]

The Crown is hosting the Q Arabica Combo. Becoming a Q Arabica Grader is one of the highest honors in the coffee industry. Serious study and practice are required to hone your sensory skills to the level needed to pass the battery of tests in the Q Arabica curriculum. No doubt finishing the course gives […]

By Isabella Vitaliano, Lab & Education Coordinator Edwin Noreña is an agro-industrial engineer, biotechnologist, and coffee producer based in Colombia. It’s an impressive list of attributes and the coffees he produces follow suit. His strict academic background is contrasted with his trailblazing processing technique: co-fermentation. Co-fermentation is largely considered an outcast in specialty coffee. A […]