The Royal Blog

This article outlines how coffees are graded and scored under commonly used systems, and works to define “specialty” coffee while examining the nuance and complexity of cup score values. Sections of note include definitions of individual attributes, a breakdown of what cup scores mean, and a discussion of recent, controversial updates to the tools professional graders use to evaluate a coffee’s quality.

Two major trade actions landed in under a week, and they created a lot of noise. Here’s the piece that matters for green coffee buyers: unroasted coffee (green) is explicitly excluded from the new Section 122 import surcharge currently being collected. If you’re buying landed green coffee from Royal Coffee, there will not be any […]

Editor’s Note: I first encountered Phyllis Johnson’s mind in 2020, working behind the scenes on Royal Coffee’s webinar Race & Specialty Coffee. I sat in on some of the earliest conversations that would eventually become the Coffee Coalition for Racial Equity. I left those calls changed. There’s a quality to the way Phyllis thinks and […]

Coffee pulp is one of the industry’s most overlooked byproducts and with the right infrastructure, one of its most recoverable.

Notes between cuppings 2/4/2026  Offer samples flooded my desk these past few weeks. Tanzania, Guatemala, Brazil… a bit of an unusual crowd for early February. These are the doldrums, the dead of winter, the quiet hours of waiting.  With Brazil tariffed much of 2025, purchases from the country plummeted for the US market and large volumes of anticipated arrivals in the winter […]

This article is a summary of market commentary originally created by StoneX with contributions from our Trading Team. All market data and primary analysis are attributed to StoneX unless otherwise noted.

Off the cuff thoughts Jan 7, 2026  With the New Year upon us, we were inspired to try something… well not new per se… in truth it’s a bit of a return to our roots: some more personal reflections in our newsletters.  I met with Royal co-founder Bob Fulmer casually last month, we chatted about this and that, […]

Community > Chaos  2025 delivered volatility across both the global economy and the entire coffee supply chain. Yet one thing never shifted: the strength of our community and the collective impact we can make when we act together. As we look back, we’re grateful for the ways our team, customers, and partners supported education, community, and health across the supply chain. This work […]

Editor’s Note: This field report accompanies Royal Coffee’s ongoing partnership with Grounds for Health, an organization dedicated to providing life-saving cervical cancer screening and treatment to women in coffee-growing communities. Royal is currently raising funds in support of this work, with all contributions matched dollar for dollar as part of our 2026 campaign. The experiences […]