Crown Jewel Madagascar Washed Soavinandriana

Taste

Taste Analysis by Isabella Vitaliano 

The first ever release of a Crown Jewel from Madagascar, it is extremely rare to find high quality Arabica coffee from the country and even more rare to be able to move it out. Madagascar is wildly diverse with rich microclimates and nutrient soils.  

On the cupping table we got flavor notes of herbal tea, green grape and graham cracker. It is a delicate coffee reminiscent of classic central American coffees. It’s straightforward, it’s a no-nonsense profile. Easy to like and easy to brew. This is the perfect coffee to introduce new customers to an unexpected coffee region. We also found notes of toffee, raw sugar and marzipan. It’s sweet, delicious and highly versatile on any brew method.  

Source

Source Analysis by Chris Kornman 

Wreathed in mystique, the island nation of Madagascar is a biodiversity hotspot with nearly 90 percent of its flora and fauna considered endemic, including a large number of coffee species. With such a rich ecosystem, you might expect the island to supply the world with unexpected and unique flavors of both culture and agriculture. However, throughout its history, Madagascar has been plagued by violent cyclones, famine, and political instability that leaves it severely underdeveloped and with limited access to export markets. 

My relationship with the Madagascar Coffee Company began, as so many coffee sourcing connections do, through personal touch. Amy Periera, a Q Grader who works on Royal Coffee’s inbound logistics team (and was formerly involved in NGO development projects that included coffee production in Myanmar) made the initial contact. A friend of hers knew of a project in development in north-central Madagscar that was looking to get some expert opinions on the quality of a coffee redevelopment strategy. I said “sure.” It’s a rare treat to taste coffee from uncommon origins. 

It’s also a pleasure to provide positive initial feedback to a project in its early development stages. The coffees were unexpectedly delicious, a selection of comparative samples from home processed and centrally processed arabicas, a research-station cultivar, and a robusta/arabica hybrid. I offered some quality and commercial advice to the project lead, Ryan Kelley, who offered a little context about the project in response, and then we didn’t exchange communication again for more than a year. 

In the months that intervened between our initial conversations and offer samples, Ryan had been busy. He’d solidified a supply chain, had begun exporting container-loads of robusta to Europe, and was in the process of coordinating central processing to improve quality and consistency of the product. We were offered a perfectly decent robusta and two unique, exciting microlots of arabica. With 2025’s robusta supply in crisis due to tariffs, Royal was keen to find suppliers… and we happened to have a few roasters in our books that remembered the last time we brough in coffee from the country, almost a decade ago. We drew up contracts and Ryan expedited the process, just barely getting coffee out of the country before the monsoon season and its devastating cyclones which mercifully spared the coffee project but left destruction and death in its wake throughout other parts of the island. 

Tucked into that container with 300 bags of robusta were 10 little washed arabica jute sacks, and I’m so thrilled to say that they arrived in exceptional condition. They are the first Madagascar coffees to ever release as a part of the Crown Jewel program, and I certainly expect they won’t be the last.  

This lot is from Soavinandriana, in the Itasy region, grown by about 40 local Malagasy producers and centrally processed by Ryan Kelley’s Madagascar Coffee Company. As with smallholders the world over, these coffee producers are cultivating coffee on tiny plots, less than a hectare in size, and intercropping with a mix of diversified agriculture including rice, maize, beans, cassava, local vegetables, avocados, citrus, and bananas. The varieties of coffee grown are locally adapted red and yellow Bourbons and some Catimor selections. 

At the MCC processing site, only ripe cherries are selected, dry fermented in bags overnight, and then depulped and fermented underwater for another twenty-four hours before washing and drying on rasied beds for 10-14 days. MCC employs seasonal workers at the washing station and has a full time regional coordinator, named Bina Lalaina, who leads field relationships and quality control. The company’s stated goal is to revitalize the coffee sector—which has fallen into general decline due to poorly maintained trees, fractured infrastructure, and inconsistent processing—by providing training, renovation support, coffee tree nurseries, and clear price incentives for quality. These coffees come with full farmgate transparency: coffee growers were paid 4,500 Malagasy ariary per kilogram of ripe cherry. If converting by weight, that’s equal to roughly $2.50-2.70 per pound of export ready green coffee. 

Green

Green Analysis by Isabella Vitaliano 

This coffee is spread throughout the 18-16 range with 75% in this section, slightly higher in density, and with average moisture content ranges. Robusta is readily available from the country as it is easy to grow and lower maintenance.  

Due to political instability, climate crises and lack of infrastructure, it’s been historically difficult to enter the specialty coffee market. Uganda has been in a similar position in regards to lack of government support, infrastructure and political instability. There are a few main actors that have been able to elevate the reputation of Uganda-grown coffee.  

Madagascar Coffee Company is making a valiant effort to do the same things with Madagascar’s reputation and I have no doubt they’ll succeed. Be the first to hand select this coffee and support the growth of the specialty coffee sector by purchasing this coffee and educating your customers on the topic. Not only is there a great story, but the green specs are great and the coffee is delicious. 

Diedrich

Diedrich IR5 Analysis by Doris Garrido 

For the second lot of these Madagascan Arabica coffees, I wanted to take a slightly different approach to see how a more measured, controlled profile would express the coffee differently. The lots consist of the same cultivars – Catimor and Red and Yellow Bourbon – and the green aspects were very similar: 10% moisture content and a density of 693 g/L. For this round, my start was a bit less moderate; began with a charge temperature of 400°F and introduced heat earlier. While I usually plan for about 4 minutes of drying phase for Bourbons, my first roast of these Malagasy lots went over 5 minutes. By adding gas earlier, I aimed to shorten the drying phase and stretch the Maillard phase. Towards the end of the roast, I was careful to keep the rate of rise under 20°F per minute as I approached the first crack, primarily to avoid any harsh or bitter notes and to preserve sweetness during development. 

I started the roast at 400°F and applied 70% gas within the first 40 seconds, as I noticed the coffee was absorbing heat quickly. The turning point came at 175°F, at which point I pushed the gas to 100% to complete the drying phase. I maintained full gas until 290°F, then dropped to 30%. I opened the airflow completely at 370°F just before the first crack. The roast finished with approximately 5 minutes in drying, 3 minutes in the yellowing phase, and development time of 1 minute and 31 seconds. 

In the cup, we found a nice tart acidity with notes of dried citrus, lemongrass, lime, and hints of florals and white tea. It had a pleasant persimmon-like texture, rounded out by milk chocolate and a saffron finish. Slight changes on the roasting approach pay off nicely, shows the potential of dialing the roast even better, I would keep shorting the drying and stretching the rest of the roast. 

Aillio

Aillio Bullet R1 IBTS Analysis by Evan Gilman 

We use the RoasTime app and roast.world site to document our roasts on the Bullet. You can find our roast documentation below by searching on roast.world, or by clicking on the link below. Take a look at our roast profiles below, as they are constantly changing! 

This is truly the first arabica I have ever roasted from Madagascar, so I didn’t know what to expect. Doris gave me a bit of a heads up on this coffee, and how it may not color as expected later in the roast. Just looking at the round little seeds, I knew this had to be a Bourbon-dominant coffee, so I did expect some nice texture and sweetness, but other than that I was in the dark, shooting what turned out to be a barrel of fish, but also a barrel full of monkeys. That is to say, it was both easy and fun to roast this coffee. 

Taking that into effect, I started with a good push at 464F charge temperature, P8 power, and F2 fan. I lowered power to P7 and increased fan to F3 at peak rate of change, then didn’t touch them again until just before first crack. At 372.5F / 6:25, I increased fan speed to F4 and awaited crack, after which I lowered power further to P6. Not a lot of moves with this coffee, and I was able to finish the roast at 398.8 / 9:00. I knew I wanted to take this coffee a little bit darker if possible, but it still turned out looking pretty light even as it neared 400F. No matter; the cup was still phenomenal.  

With cashew notes and a creamy body, this coffee was sumptuous in the cup. There’s orange acidity here that lasts through to the end of the flavor experience, and a touch of lemongrass that I think might just be part of this origin’s general flavor profile (but I’ll certainly need to taste more)! Here’s hoping that happens very very soon.. 

You can follow along with my roast here at roast.world: https://roast.world/egilman/roasts/yL4dLG-QCf6wT6t2OX904 

IKAWA

Ikawa Pro V3 Analysis by Isabella Vitaliano 

Our current Ikawa practice compares two sample roast profiles, originally designed for different densities of green coffee. The two roasts differ slightly in total length, charge temperature, and time spent between color change in first crack. You can learn more about the profiles here. 

The Crown team doesn’t often have such a hard time with pronunciations for coffees but this time around between the two Madagascars, this got nicknamed ‘long name’ (Please don’t take after us).  

This is one of the few times I’ve cupping a Madagascar coffee and was excited to see how it did in the ikawa roaster. The high density roast was crisp, sweet and lots of bright flavor notes but overall felt a little bit empty. The light density roast of this coffee has lots of caramel flavors, soft lemon tea and floral bergamot.  

Tasting better on the low density roast tracks with density readings on both free settled and the sinar reading. I took a strong preference towards the light density roast as it brought out more complex flavors.     

You can roast your own by linking to our profiles in the Ikawa Pro app here: 

• Roast 1: Low Density Sample Roast 
• Roast 2: High Density Sample Roast   

Brew

Brew Analysis by MJ Smith  

This was my first time trying a coffee from Madagascar, and wow! What a beautiful first impression. I feel like this is one of those coffees that anyone could love, from the hardcore coffee-heads to your mom who asks you if it’s okay to reheat her coffee in the microwave… Lots of caramelly, honey-like sweetness dashed with just a bit of fresh green fruit and citrusy vibes to brighten it up a bit.  

The first brew I wanted to highlight was actually my last brew of the day. It had a dose of 18g, ground at 11, with a final brew time of 4:00. Its TDS came out to 1.31, giving us an extraction percentage of 19.24%. Personally, I picked up notes of agave, lemongrass, green gage plum, dried apricot, and orange blossoms. The rest of the team also picked up notes of apricot, as well as some additional notes of honey, butterscotch, mandarin, toasted caramel, and orange zest. 

The next recipe had a dose of 19g, ground at 10, with a final brew time of 3:30. This one had a TDS of 1.44 and an extraction percentage of 19.48%. This was also really delicious; it was just a tiny bit heavier. I found notes of caramelized sugar, orange zest, kettle corn, lemongrass, and stone fruit. The rest of the team found notes of plum, lemon verbena, raisin, caramel, and black tea. 

When brewing this coffee for yourself, a recommend a slightly lower dose, and a solid medium grind. The V60 also helps keep it nice and clean. I would even like to try it on a Chemex or something with a slightly thicker filter to see what kind of notes would come through with that extra clarity. All in all, this is an exceptional coffee that has something to offer for everyone. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!