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The nouns coffee royal and café royale designate a drink made from black coffee and brandy, cognac or other liquor, and sometimes mixed with other ingredients or topped with whipped cream.
The following is from The Dessert Book: A Complete Manual from the Best American and Foreign Authorities. With Original Economical Recipes. By a Boston Lady (Boston (Massachusetts): J. E. Tilton and Company, 1872) [chapter 16: Coffee, page 103]:
COFFEE ROYAL
Is prepared in the following manner: Put four large lumps of loaf-sugar, or sugar-candy, into half a cup of strong coffee; then fill the cup with old cognac poured slowly over the back of a teaspoon. The spirituous liquor will naturally rise to the top: set fire to it in order to prevent its mixture with the coffee; and, when it has burned off, stir the liquid well, and drink it immediately. This liquor is drunk extensively in France, where it is commonly known as gloria, and is excellent for the digestion, though very stimulating in its effects.
Coffee, ½ cup; sugar, 4 lumps; cognac, ½ glass. Burn off the spirit.
In the nouns coffee royal and café royale, the adjective royal(e) means: first-rate, exceptional—as in the noun kir royale, designating a drink made from champagne, or sparkling white wine, and crème de cassis.
The noun café royale is apparently from the French masculine noun café and the French adjective royale, feminine of royal, but does not appear to have been borrowed from French—at least in this acceptation. Various French and British cafés were called café royal(e) before this noun came to be applied to a drink made from black coffee and liquor, but there does not seem to be any connection between the cafés and the drink. In my opinion, café royale (in the sense of a drink) is simply a Frenchification of the noun coffee royal—this may be supported by the fact that the latter seems to predate the former.
These are, in chronological order, the earliest occurrences of the nouns coffee royal and café royale that I have found:
1-: coffee royal:
1.1-: From The Royal Marriage. King Lemuel’s Lesson of 1. Chastity, 2. Temperance, 3. Charity, 4. Justice, 5. Education, 6. Industry, 7. Frugality, 8. Religion, 9. Marriage, &c. Practically Paraphras’d; with Remarks, Moral and Religious, upon the Virtues and Vices of Wedlock (London: Printed for the Author; and sold by P. Meighan, G. Strahan, T. Meighan, J. Bonwick, and C. King, 1722), by Oswald Dykes (1670?-1728) [Verse XXI. Remarks, page 271]:
—Note: The text does not specify the meaning of this isolated early occurrence of the noun coffee royal:
She seldom affects sitting in a soft Chimney-Corner, or by a warm Fire-Side; but rather loves to get her self a Heat by busting Exercises, and prefers the natural Warmth of her Constitution, excited by active Motion and stirring Business, far before all the artificial Calefactions, acquir’d by modish Cordials, or Customs of drinking Cold-Tea, Chocolate, Coffee-Royal, and such like false Refreshments.
1.2-: From The Birmingham Journal (Birmingham, Warwickshire, England) of Saturday 6th March 1841 [page 2, column 5]:
Coffee Royal.—Gloria is a redolent mixture of coffee, loaf sugar (sugar candy is better), and Cognac. To half a cupful of strong coffee add four large lumps of sugar, then pour over the back of your tea spoon, with a steady hand, about as much fine old Cognac as you have of coffee; the spirit will of course float on the coffee, and great care must be taken that the two fluids mix not; then light your brandy, and when the evil spirit has evaporated, stir the beverage, and you will have one of the most delicious liqueurs imaginable; and, independently of its exhilarating powers, it will be found to possess digestive qualities in no ordinary degree; and I strongly recommend this fascinating compound to all dyspeptic people.—Tolfrey.
1.3-: From Cariboo Hunting in New Brunswick, published in The Sporting Gazette (London, England) of Saturday 7th February 1863 [page 227, column 3]:
The morning was bright and cold. About two inches of snow had fallen during the night, which improved the snow-shoeing. Sebatis prepared our breakfast, and we fortified ourselves, for the day with a cup of coffee royal and started.
1.4-: From A Long Vacation in the Argentine Alps: Or, Where to Settle in the River Plate States (London: Richard Bentley, 1868), by Henry Charles Ross-Johnson:
[chapter 10, page 50]:
Next morning, at daylight, we were up ready for a start. I felt rather stiff, but a large silver pannikin of hot “coffee royal”—i.e., coffee with brandy in it—soon made me feel full of going.
[chapter 21, page 110]:
Next morning, when we turned out at daylight, in spite of my warm night-dress (a huge Iceland sealskin coat and cap), I felt bitterly cold. […] However, a biscuit and a cup of “coffee royal” made me contented enough; and away we started.
2-: café royale:
2.1-: From Learning to be Barkeeper, published in The Detroit Free Press (Detroit, Michigan, USA) of Friday 4th August 1882 [page 6, column 5]—reprinted from the Chicago Herald (Chicago, Illinois, USA):
When a boy feels the divine afflatus and his young ambition inspires him to ask admission into such a school as he may eventually graduate from with the diploma of professor of cocktails, brandy smashes, Rob Roys, mint juleps, sherry cobblers, Glasgow flips, rum coolers, milk punches, claret punches, Pousse cafes, hot toddies and cafe royales, he finds, as the sage of old said, that there is no royal road to learning; and that in liquor, as in literature, he must begin at the bottom.
2.2-: From What is the Remedy?, published in The New-York Times (New York City, New York, USA) of Sunday 23rd November 1890 [page 11, column 1]:
That evening the Judge sat at the club, once more composed, complacent, and comfortable. District Attorney Barnard sauntered through the rooms.
“Hello, Barnard,” he cried, “you’re just the man I want to see. Come here and sit down. Have a cigar and a café royale.”
“Thanks,” said Barnard, as he stretched back in his chair and puffed and sipped luxuriously.
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