The Royal Blog

Editor’s note: This article first ran in Roast Magazine’s September/October 2020 issue, and is republished here with permission. Roast has generously provided a pdf of the article, which you can access here. Article Summary Bourbon coffee traces its global influence back to Réunion Island, where a small genetic pool reshaped arabica cultivation worldwide. This article […]

Blending Water Some Important Math to Help You Mix Waters of Different TDS Tasting Room Director Sandra Elisa Loofbourow and I recently ran into a difficult problem to solve at the Crown, and wanted to share some of the work it took to figure out how to mix two different waters to achieve a desired […]

Publisher’s note: check out our fresh crop Ethiopias. In December 2018, a small group of us drove the mercifully paved high route from Yirga Alem, in Sidama, to Shakiso, in Guji, arriving in the dark. Early the next morning on our way to the farms we stopped at a café for fatira, a flaky breakfast pancake cut into squares, bowls of honey, and boiling hot macchiatos. The early sun was a disco ball in […]

The long and winding road of Ikawa profiling led me to pen previous articles on challenges and some new ‘from-scratch” sample roast profiles I have been employing regularly for Crown Jewels and other coffees. Yet, I’ve long been seeking a low-airflow alternative to the high fan speeds I tend to prefer for most high-density coffees. […]

By Nate Lumpkin, Crown Barista Since we’ve all been stuck at home for months, it seemed like there was no better time than now to practice roasting my own coffee. I do most of my home cooking on a cast iron skillet that a friend gifted me many years ago, and I’d heard that it’s […]

Comparing Common Coffee Brewers – Part II By Nate Lumpkin, Crown Barista As you all know, everything’s closed down for a little while to slow the spread of the new coronavirus, and the Crown is doing its part by staying closed. In the meantime, I have a lot of time on my hands. I’ve been […]

How To: Brewing Coffee at Home Without A Scale By Bolor Erdenebat, Crown Barista As a barista working at a well equipped café, I can’t imagine myself brewing or pulling an espresso shot without a scale. It tells us exactly how much water and coffee we are using, and it enables us to be consistent […]

Well, who’d have thought that just over a month after wondering publicly whether the novel coronavirus would put an end to public cuppings, nearly the entire world would be thrust into an unprecedented lockdown. Here in the Bay Area, we’ve been sheltering in place since Tuesday March 17, and it brings me only the smallest […]

By Nate Lumpkin, The Crown Barista As you all know, everything’s closed down for a little while to slow the spread of the new coronavirus, and the Crown is doing its part by staying closed. In the meantime, I have a lot of time on my hands. I’ve been curious about all the different drippers […]

A Taste of Perception: Examining Bias in Side-by-Side Coffee Tastings By James Scott, Crown Barista Over here at The Crown, we taste a lot of coffee–so much that we probably spit out more than we swallow (can you believe that?). Between slurps, we describe each coffee in as much detail as possible. We are encouraged […]