It’s been quite some time since we last featured a coffee roasted specially for us by an American roaster. In fact not since Ritual Coffee Roasters from San Francisco, who made an appearance in our [10/16] box, have we had the pleasure of sharing a coffee from the other side of the Atlantic with our customers. So then, when we got an email from Onyx Coffee Roasters recently, trying to find out how they could participate in Europe’s most exciting coffee box, we saw this as a sign from the coffee gods to make it happen.
If you don’t know Onyx, then you should. In fact, if you keep reading, you will! Run by charismatic husband and wife duo Jon and Andrea Allen, Onyx has been at the forefront of establishing and promoting transparency in specialty coffee pretty much since its founding. Jon mainly takes care of green coffee buying and consequently travels all over the world in search of the best coffees to source for his company and ultimately his customers. Andrea runs the business on home turf.
The legendary Onyx transparency model was born our of Jon’s frustration with a lack of clear data and information on the global specialty coffee trade. Thus he set out to make all of his own deals public including vital components such as: price paid, cupping score, producer’s name, importer-exporter information, and the fair trade and commodity prices at the time of purchase. Apart from having a positive impact on the lives of his producers and giving them unprecedented access to information about pricing of coffee in other parts of the world, this information also greatly helped to explain to his end consumers why Onyx’s coffees cost.
Over the years, Onyx established itself as a real frontrunner and a beacon of class in a part of America – Arkansas – that sometimes gets overlooked. No wonder they recently won the Sprudgie Award for ‘Notable Roaster’ and are now making their European debut as part of our terribly tasty [2/18] coffee box.
We were quite lucky to take our pick from a fine selection of three different single origins from different Colombian producers who Onyx closely works with. All three were included in our monthly blind cupping session and the unanimous winner turned out to be a honey-processed coffee from Aponte Village, a well-balanced, juicy and full-bodied coffee that offers a nice introduction into the Onyx way of coffee.
We’re incredibly thrilled to welcome Onyx to your upcoming [2/18] coffee box our first US roaster in almost 1 1/2 years and at the same time, the first US roaster to represent the mid-West. They will be joining Slovenian roaster Stow Coffee Roasters and Don Gallo from Spain to make up our exquisite [2/18] coffee box.
For more information, please visit our coffee box page and preorder your box by 15-02 to avoid missing out.
