Private Trainings & Consulting

The Crown: Royal Coffee Lab & Tasting Room

Learn with Us

Opportunities for learning at The Crown now include specialized one-on-one instruction. Our team of coffee professionals are ready to take your skills to the next level in the topic of your choosing. Due to COVID-19 we are offering virtual trainings, although these trainings usually take place on site at The Crown with our bank of resources, or off-site, on a case-by-case basis. Check out the course descriptions below and set up a time for a phone call with your instructor: a 30-minute introductory conversation is included in the cost of the course to make sure your needs are heard and understood.

Services

Personal Roasting Lessons

Production Roasting

Learn to operate professional roasting equipment in a safe and accessible environment. You’ll get access to your choice of roasting on a 5kg Deidrich or 15kg Loring. You’ll receive instruction on how the various functions of the machine affect how coffee roasts, learn how to profile roast a coffee, and operate the machine under the guidance of one of our professional instructors. There will be plenty of time for questions and answers, and you’ll take home the coffee you roast to taste on your own. Your instructor will also take a sample of your roasts and provide sensory feedback and guidance in a follow up communication.

Hours: 4 hrs

Price: $650

Sample Roasting

Learn how to sample roast various coffees in a professional setting on multiple machines. We’ll look at the process logging data and taking sample-roast specific measurements to aid your success, and practice roasting on a perforated drum Proaster as well as a solid drum variable airflow Coffee Pro, two popular double-barrel style machines. You’ll take home the coffee you roast and your instructor will take a sample to evaluate and provide sensory feedback and guidance in a followup communication.

Hours: 3 hrs

Price: $500

Home Roasting

Practice roasting on two popular, low-cost home roasters with our professional instructor. You’ll get access to a Behmor 1600 Plus and a Quest M3S, and learn a little about the idiosyncrasies of these two roasting machines, including operation and maintenance. You’ll take home the coffee you roast and your instructor will take a sample to evaluate and provide sensory feedback and guidance in a followup communication.

Hours: 4 hrs

Price: $650

Personal Bar Skills Lessons

Drip Coffee, Espresso, and Milk technique are the three pillars on which excellent coffee service is built. These key skills can be learned using the equipment and expertise of our staff of seasoned barista trainers at The Crown, or on site at your facility and your equipment. You’ll get a primer on extraction theory and lots of practical experience learning to “dial in” your drip offerings, espresso machines, and learning to steam and pour milk for lattes, cappuccinos, and other classic bar drinks.

Hours: 4hrs

Price: $600

Cup Quality Consultation

If you’re in need of a roast evaluation or have quality questions about your roasted or green coffee, we have an experienced team of Q-graders and QC Specialists ready to assist. You can send us roasted or green coffee for quality evaluation, or show up with your coffee(s) in hand to taste alongside us. Price varies depending on the service you need, so be sure to provide details like how many coffees you need evaluated, whether they are roasted or need to be roasted, and if you want a physical evaluation as well as a sensory one. You’ll receive specific feedback on the coffees in written form and have the opportunity to respond with any followup questions that might arise. **In-person tastings of this type are on indefinite hold due to the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Base Rate = $150

+$20 for each sample over 5

+$20 per sample if submitted unroasted

+$150 to attend and cup & discuss with instructor (2 hrs max) This is on hold indefinitely due to COVID-19.

Sensory Skills Training

The Crown’s one-on-one sensory training workshop includes a number of important sensory-skill-building exercises to improve your ability to taste and evaluate coffee, under the guidance of one of our veteran cup quality specialists and Q-graders. You’ll learn to triangulate (discriminate for differences in cups), detect coffee-specific defects like phenol, mold, and ferment, align to the industry’s standard SCA cupping form and calibrate with your instructor, and participate in a sensory skills training to evaluate the intensity of sweet, salty, and sour concentrations. The 4-hour session includes opportunities for questions and feedback with your instructor.

Includes the following skill-building exercises under the guidance of veteran coffee sensory professional:

Triangulation (6 sets, batch brewed)
Defect identification (phenol, mold, ferment)
Standards & Calibration (SCA form, cup taster alignment, 3 coffees)
Sweet / Salty / Sour intensity training

Hours: 4 hrs

Price: $750

This is on hold indefinitely due to COVID-19.

Elevating the Restaurant Coffee Experience

All too frequently coffee is a forgotten or neglected element of restaurant service. We can sympathize: all of us come from service backgrounds and know keeping track of the little things can be a chore that takes up valuable time and energy. We want to help. Coffee doesn’t have to be an afterthought, and it doesn’t have to be complicated. Our short coffee-skills class for service industry professionals will focus on a couple of easy-to-learn essentials that will make your coffee match the quality of the rest of your service. We’ll focus on machine choice and maintenance, some game-changing barista skill basics, and do some sensory training as well so you can get an insider’s perspective on how we talk about coffee quality at our roasting and QC labs.

Comparative tasting, equipment maintenance, light bar skills

Short cupping – 3 coffees (This is on hold indefinitely due to COVID-19)
Cafiza, machine calibration, grinder etiquette, programming espresso & auto-drip functions (as necessary)
Pour-over technique. Tasting for extraction. Ratio/dosing protocols.
Choosing the right roaster/coffee – (a chance to highlight the skills of local roasters, encourage the chef/service manager to listen to the talented coffee professionals in the same way the would a high quality wine or beer or cheese supplier, etc.

Hours: 3 hours

Price: $500

COVID no cupping discount possible: 2.5 hours / $400

Group Coffee Tasting Experiences

The Crown is pleased to offer private group coffee experiences. Bring a group of friends or coworkers to learn about coffee with our professional staff in an incredible one-of-a-kind environment. We’ll provide a basic introduction to our one-of-a-kind facility, coffee as an agricultural and specialty product, and engage together in a fun and enlightening taste experience. Be sure to reach out and communicate any specific needs your group might have in advance.

This is on hold indefinitely due to COVID-19.

Interested in Learning More? Contact Us

Meet The Trainers

Sandra Elisa Loofbourow

Tasting Room Director

Q-Grader & Assistant Instructor
Barista Instructor
Sensory and Quality Specialist
Professional Roaster

Candice Madison

Director of Roasting

Q-Grader & Instructor
SCA-AST
Professional Roaster
Sensory and Quality Specialist
Green Coffee Grading Specialist

Chris Kornman

Education & Lab Manager

Sensory and Quality Specialist
Professional Roaster
Green Coffee Analysis Specialist

Evan Gilman

Creative Director

Q-Grader
SCA-AST
Home Roasting Specialist
Barista Instructor
Sensory and Quality Specialist

Alex Taylor

Tasting Room Manager

Barista Instructor
Sensory and Quality Specialist

The Crown: Royal Coffee Lab & Tasting Room

The space is filled with natural sunlight fed through skylights scattered throughout the 27-foot ceiling. Various iterations of the space are possible with our movable walls and modular bars. The Crown is fully equipped with state-of-the-art A/V equipment and a wide selection of the latest coffee equipment from premier suppliers like Fellow, La Marzocco, Loring, and more.

The Tasting Room

Due to COVID-19, our Tasting Room is not open to the public. However, this room features the opportunity for stellar coffee service, diverse counter heights for drinks & light bites, an expansive 8-tap system, and a mobile modular coffee bar, called “Naaga”, built by Oakland artist Chambers Art & Design.

When the modular Nanawall moveable glass door system is opened, this room will connect to the adjacent Presentation Room. It can also operate fully independently.

The Presentation Room

This room is both the largest and most customizable room, perfect to create the layout that best fits your needs.

With it’s acoustic paneling and 133″ inch projector screen, this room was designed for presentations, panel discussions, passed or shared appetizers and, of course, cuppings.

When the modular Nanawall moveable glass door system is opened, this room will connect to the adjacent Tasting Room & is ideal for large gatherings. It can also operate fully independently.

When the pocket Nanawall moveable glass door is opened, this room will connect to the adjacent Brew Lab.

Per the SCA specifications, our Brew Lab is equipped with a red light for testing.

The Brew Lab

This room is the most technical room. It was designed for hands-on learning and more intimate training & presentations with it’s 92” projector screen.

When the pocket Nanawall moveable glass doors are opened, this room can connect to either the Roast Lab or the Presentation Room, making it ideal for viewership overflow, or to house a catering company.

The Roast Lab

This room was designed to roast coffee and not much else. Your guests will enjoy the opportunity to see the collections of roasters up close while they hibernate during your event.