Asking us to choose the top 5 Crown Jewels of the year is akin to asking a parent which of their children are the favorite. Of course, there’s an answer, it’s just impolite to say it 😉
So, instead of simply choosing a few favorites, and because we’re a bit iconoclastic and enjoy bending the rules when we can, we’ve decided to break the Crown Jewels into some fun categories. Here are a few of our personal favorites, some consensus best of the bests, and a few light statistics to round things out for the data-inclined.
Top 5 Crown Jewels – Cup Score
Unsurprisingly, most of the top spots as delineated by the stoic (now-obsolete?) cup score are occupied by Geshas, followed closely by two of our favorite Ethiopian coffees. What can we say? Despite our love of coffees of nearly every stripe, those floral notes still reign supreme when it comes to the way our team rates coffees.
Top 5 Crown Jewels – Volume Imported
While nearly every Crown Jewel from 2025 was sourced specifically for the program in limited volumes, the two exceptions to that rule are included in our volume category, and were available simultaneously in full size bags as well as Crown Jewels. Other than those outliers, we went big in the final quarter of the year on co-ferments from Edwin Noreña. Even more of those selections will be following in the footsteps in the first quarter of 2026.
- Rwanda Cyiya Murundo Washed – 900kg (Crown Jewel volume only)
- Sulawesi Organic Bolokan Sulotco Jaya Abadi Natural – 900kg (Crown Jewel volume only)
Top 5 Crown Jewels – Most Expensive
Max Nicholas-Fulmer (CEO) tried to set a record with his Yemen purchase, an extraordinary coffee worth every penny and steeped so deeply in the history of Royal drinking it is practically like osmosis from a textbook. But Chris Kornman (director of education) & Charlie Habegger (sourcing and procurement) won the dubious distinction of least discrete coffee buyers this year with the tiny quantity of Galo Morale’s Gesha. Morales’ coffee also claims the number four spot, while Edwin Norena’s coferments grab the rest of the top five.
- 4-way Tie Colombia Coferments Apple/Peach/Raspberry/Cascade Hops – $19.75
Top 5 Crown Jewels – Rarest Cultivar/Variety Selections
Defining rarity in this regard can be a bit difficult to tabulate, we didn’t actually go out and count the number of trees in the field, but this is roughly based on availability in the market, difficulty to grow, and distinguished regionally (as in the Tanzania “Simba” Ethiopia landrace and Honduran SL28 selections, where the cultivars are grown commonly elsewhere but rarely in those regions). The Sudan Rume was also our most limited release of the year, just 170kg went on sale.
Top 5 Crown Jewels – Extraordinary Fermentations & Processing Styles
You are probably expecting Edwin Norena’s co-ferments in this category, too, but we decided to go in a different direction and highlight a few unusual methods from producers and regions not world-famous for their innovative methods; such as the uncommon Rue conferment from Ethiopia, the inoculated Bali, or the first ever anaerobic natural coffee we imported from Ichamama cooperative in Kenya.
Top 5 Crown Jewels – Legacy Relationships
Chris has known Kavita and Neel Vohora in Tanzania since 2008 or so, and has bought their coffees nearly every intervening year; they’ve been a perennial supplier to Royal since 2017. Desta Gola represents membership in a cooperative whose single-farmer distinctive lots have been in Royal’s books for over a decade, and Desta Gola alone has supplied Crown Jewel coffees for five consecutive years. Rwanda’s Kivubelt, run by Furaha Umwizeye and her team, has been on Chris’s radar since 2013 and are repeat Crown Jewel members. Juliana Guevarra and Wbeimar Lasso’s Gesha keeps making its way onto our menu (including from two distinct harvests in 2025 alone). And the Anaerobic Yemen, supplied by Pearl of Tehama, represents one of Royal’s longest standing relationships anywhere in the world.
Which was your top Crown Jewel of 2025?
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