Labor Day Weekend often marks the return of familiar patterns: school, football, consistent schedules and ways of doing things. Here at Royal, we are taking a different approach this fall, ushering in a slate of major additions and upgrades at various levels of the company which should dramatically improve your green coffee sourcing process. Below, I give a high-level overview of some of these changes, and a heads up for what to keep your eye on.

Crown Jewels

By now you’ve undoubtedly noticed our new web site, replete with a variety of new features including improved filtering on the Offering Sheet, more accessible green coffee stats, and a much improved blog loaded with great educational content from The Crown team and our traders, as well as some excellent guest posts. Another major addition is our new 22 pound box boutique coffee line, called Crown Jewels. These are unique green coffees of which we are especially proud, hand selected for their appeal amongst your top-shelf offerings. Whether you are a home roaster, a small shop looking to diversify your offerings, or an established production company wanting to feature something truly special, the Crown Jewel program is for you. All of these coffees are carefully vetted, and backed-up by the best and most complete analysis in the business. On the product page of each Crown Jewel, we feature interactive roast charts, brewing parameters, and all the technical specs you could ask for, so that you really can immerse yourself and get the most out of these exceptional coffees. The one thing you won’t find is a cupping score. We believe all coffees have multiple ways to express themselves, and all roast and brew styles have coffees to which they are particularly suited. To that end, our analyses should be read not as prescriptions, but rather as jumping off points for your own exploration. The Crown Jewel boxes are available both online and via our sales team, and will ship via UPS on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

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The Crown

At the end of last week, we inked a deal with the General Contractor Northern Sun, builder of such fantastic Bay Area restaurants as Comal and Bar Agricole, to begin work on The Crown during the first week of September. The Crown is our multi-purpose Tasting Room, Event Space, Roast Lab, Brew Lab and coffee education center in Uptown Oakland. Under the design leadership of Studio Terpeluk, our architect Norman Sanchez, and now the construction chops of Northern Sun, the physical space promises to reflect the ambitious nature of the project itself. Even during the build-out, the Crown Team will begin hosting a series of classes and workshops at off-site locations, on topics not commonly addressed elsewhere. Check back for updates soon. For more on the The Crown, listen to the recent Cat & Cloud Coffee Podcast with our Director of Roasting, Jen Apodaca.

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New Hires

Royal is only ever as strong as the people who work here, and to that end we’ve recently made two new additions to the team that we are excited to announce. Bryan Moran was the former head of operations at East Bay Logistics warehouse, and he joins our Outbound Traffic Team bringing a wealth of green coffee logistics experience. Colleen King was a former account manager at Heart Roasters in Portland, and she comes aboard with us as a Sales Associate. If you are a new roaster looking to get started with Royal, it is possible that Colleen will be your point of contact.