What a time to be a coffee roaster. The number of specialty coffee drinkers has never been as great as it is now, and that number, by all estimates, appears to only be going up. And when it comes to green coffee, roasters have options. Gone are the days of only being able to purchase coffee 60kg at a time (or having to pay a hefty markup to buy smaller quantities at retail prices). Recognizing the wave of micro- and nano-roasters and home roasters alike, coffee importers have started offering smaller parcel green coffee packages to meet the needs of those operating something smaller than a 20kg Probat.
The latest entry into the smaller quantity canon comes via the Bay Area’s Royal Coffee with Royal Gems. Coming in 50lb boxes, Royal Gems offers roasters consistency, affordability, and scalability.
With Royal Gems, Royal Coffee seeks to offer a wide array of coffees to help roasters build a reliable roster year-round, focusing on “consistent profiles, season after season, including Fair Trade, Organic and women-produced coffees,” Royal’s Director of Business Development Richard Sandlin tells Sprudge. The 50lb boxes include coffees for building blends and for single origins, for everything from seasonal offerings to core menu staples. “The Royal Gem fits into that essential mid to top tier option that roasters often find a hard time sourcing.”
Royal Gems builds upon Royal’s small pack offerings, which began in 2016 with Crown Jewels, 22lb boxes of high-end specialty green coffees, primarily featuring micro-lots and experimental processing methods. More than just two different size options, Royal Gems and Crown Jewels can work in concert, giving smaller roasters the same sort of menu diversity as larger roasters with orders of magnitude more buying power while allowing them to do so manageably, scalably, and responsibly.
“A lot of people in this industry are looking for how to do more at origin. I often find that even the smallest roasters want to do something, but get overwhelmed by the options, or perhaps don’t realize their impact,” Sandlin states. “If you are looking for a way to give back, strengthen your supply chain, support women-produced coffees, diversify your menu, but aren’t sure how, the Royal Gems can be a great option to simplify and do a whole lot more than you might think. We have a lot of great projects in the works to better connect roasters at origin and producers with roasters, streamline ordering, and just make coffee better.”
For more information or to see the full list of Royal Gems offerings, visit Royal Coffee’s official website.
Zac Cadwalader is the managing editor at Sprudge Media Network and a staff writer based in Dallas. Read more Zac Cadwalader on Sprudge.
