From the talented farm Las Lajas is this natural processed SL-28 variety. Usually grown in East Africa (Kenya specifically), this variety yields large amounts of naturally occurring phosphoric acid. This comes across as a tactile feel rather than a flavor. This may be one of the most mouthwatering, juicy coffees you have ever tasted. Tropical fruit flavors are prevalent in the cup while nectar like texture gives equilibrium. Overall this is one of our favorite offerings we’ll release this year.

The Las Lajas micromill is located in the Sabanilla de Alajuela region of Costa Rica. Francisca and Oscar Chacon greet you in the driveway with huge smiles and a willingness to show you their stunning farms. Their pride is evident as they show you each immaculate step the coffee goes through. It all starts with their farming practices; Las Lajas is a certified organic farm. These third-generation producers focus on preserving the environment while maintaining the highest quality coffee. Their micromill is immaculately clean, keeping the processing standards they are well known for; the Chacons were some of the first to do high-quality naturals and honeys in Central America. Going into the 2020 harvest, they completed a renovation of their mill, complete with a corkscrew conveyor belt that transports depulped coffee to a custom trailer, which transports it to their drying facility. Strict size and density separation happen at the mills, even the naturals are passed through the mill to separate the less ripe and small size cherries after selective harvesting. The last step of quality and care takes place on the drying patios and beds. This is where we believe Las Lajas is truly advancing coffee. Oscar told us that he strives to focus on drying the green coffee the same as a roaster focuses on roasting by paying close attention to curves and data. This particular coffee is a variety selection of SL28, a Kenyan variety that has made its way to Costa Rica to much success. Each year we buy a significant amount of their natural and honey process coffees, but this is our first year buying their SL28. We were blown away by the flavor clarity as well as the dynamic acidity of this Kenyan variety, expertly processed by Las Lajas.

Costa Rica Las Lajas SL-28 Natural

Café and Roastery specializing in coffee profiling and brew methods located in Northwest Arkansas. Locations in Bentonville, Fayetteville, Rogers, & Springdale.

Onyx Coffee Lab

Cultivated at the base of Bombe Mountain, this coffee was picked in ripe cherry form and dried on raised beds inside the fruit, also known as natural processing. Through technique and agronomy, Shantawene has become a staple of Onyx. Fresh, clean tropical fruit that embosses itself on the palate. This is a clean, unapologetic fruit forward coffee that will expand your view on what coffee can taste like.

Ethiopia Bensa Shantawene Natural

This is our first peaberry release from the Rungeto Farmers Cooperative and we are extremely excited. This coffee is extremely sugar dense. Peaberries by nature usually have subtle, ferment-like undertones; however, this coffee strikes the balance between thick, syrupy, engendered sweetness and clean, bright stone fruit and citrus. A great compliment to our line up, this coffee is crushable so be careful. Performs well both as an espresso and filter.

Kenya Rungeto Peaberry

Let’s be honest, this year has sucked... Well hold your head up- we have good news for you! The always crowd favorite naturally processed Ethiopian coffee from our friends at Hambela just arrived and has your fruit-forward cravings covered. Notes of malted berries, cantaloupe, and sorghum with an impressively viscous body. This coffee highlights the historcal process of drying coffee within the cherry, staying true to the East African flavor culture.

Ethiopia Beriti

This flawless harvest from the famed Nyeri region of Kenya is a straight up show stopper. This is one of our favorite Kenya micro-lots we’ve contracted in quite some time. This coffee has a unique way of combining delicate floral notes like white flowers in bloom while undergirding the cup with deep complex tropical sweetness of starfruit & peach. To top it all off this is a pretty big outturn so we will have this coffee for at least three months. Enjoy it!

Kenya Gathaithi OT-15

Southern Weather embodies everything we love about specialty coffee and has evolved into a foundational blend. We brew this in our own cafes as a “House” filter option and love how it balances the relationship between modern citric acidity flavors with full bodied chocolates. This comfortable, yet surprisingly complex and sophisticated coffee is approachable to all. It performs well on its own for the purist or with fats such as dairy or plant based beverages, making it a true answer for all coffee needs.

Southern Weather

Geometry has been defined as "describing spaces that lie beyond the normal range of human experience." Soon it will also be defined as "that coffee from Onyx that I am in love with and completely redefined my relationship with coffee."

It's our answer for everything and has two of our favorite coffees—a washed processed Ethiopian & Colombian. This blend has become one of our favorite coffees. We love it as a filter coffee, and we love it as espresso. And not only does is it taste great as either but it's easy to dial in as espresso or filter.

Geometry

This unique offering has become foundational in our Colombia sourcing programs for the last five years. Farmed by the Inga Indigenous community these coffees are intensely sweet like honey accompanied by an underlying fruit pulp and floral nature. This year's offering has been extra laborious as we cupped through an extraordinary amount of small farms in the village finally purchasing 18 in total and homogenizing them at origin. This is our best Aponte release to date and hats off to the producers and our cupping team for this offering.

VARIETY: Caturra, Bourbon
PROCESS: Honey Process, Raised-Bed Dried

Colombia Aponte Village

This delicate, floral micro-lot has incredible complex sweetness and acidity. It comes from our close friends, METAD, in the Guji region of Ethiopia whom we've visited for the last 6 years. We are always honored to contract their beautiful coffees.

VARIETY: Heirloom
PROCESS: Washed, Raised-Bed Dried
ELEVATION: 2000 Meters
CUP: Apricot, Black Tea, Dried Berries, Silky

Ethiopia Hambela Kirite

This naturally occurring hybrid variety, Pacamara, is famously cultivated in the Northern Chalatenango mountains and is almost perfect. Grown by our good friend Jorge Rivera, whom we’ve been working with for six years, this coffee tastes of complex date sweetness and tangy black currants. Performs well in a auto drip or as a bright citrus forward espresso.

VARIETY: Pacamara
PROCESS: Washed & Raised-Bed Dried
ELEVATION: 1850 Meters
CUP: Date, Sweet Tea, Concord Grape, Blackcurrant

El Salvador Santa Rosa Washed

Monarch is our most developed roast that conveys a flavor profile that we intentionally designed to work well with milk. Cream and plant based beverages mix with ease, creating a rich, decadent flavor. It involves a natural, sugar-dense coffee that binds to the fats and creates multiple complex caramelized notes during the roasting process. Look for dark chocolate and undertones of thick winey berries. Enjoy as drip or espresso.

ORIGIN: Ethiopia, Colombia
PROCESS: Natural, Washed
ELEVATION: 1800 Meters
CUP: Dark Chocolate, Molasses, Red Wine, Dried Berries, Thick & Syrupy

Monarch

Tropical Weather is a seasonal blend that celebrates coffees from our favorite coffee producing country: Ethiopia. We take a fresh washed offering that provides delicate florals and juicy texture, and incorporate a natural processed coffee that promotes pungent fruits and natural sugars. The result is indeed better than the sum of its parts. If you miss the long days of summer then Tropical Weather is your cup of sunshine. With a floral aroma, notes of mango and pineapple, along with peach sweet tea, you'll be leaving the house wearing shorts all year long.

Tropical Weather

OK, so you need a quick burst of energy, but your bedtime is in three hours. You, my friend, need a POWER NAP. You already love our floral washed Worka from Ethiopia. Well, we blended it with a natural sugar cane process Colombia creating Power Nap. We created this "half-caf" blend just for you, a pre-roast blend of 50% of our beloved Ethiopia Worka and 50% of our Decaf Colombia Huila. The resulting cup is silky sweet and reminiscent of ripe peach and cocoa, with a sweet finish of brown sugar. It's so tasty; you might just have two cups and stay up past your bedtime...

Power Nap

While most of our coffees thrive on the lighter side of roasting, there is a culture dedicated to the dark side. The traditional European style of coffee is still prevalent in many parts of the world and we honor this by crafting Eclipse—our most developed offering. The origin will change with seasonality as we publish transparent pricing, grade/score, logistics, farm/cultural history and brewing recipes on our website.

Eclipse

This coffee is intentionally sourced and roasted to craft the perfect cold brew coffee. Lower in acidity and high in sugar browning, this coffee reacts well with fats in dairy or tastes smooth and sweet on its own. We look for coffees that will take a large amount of heat during the caramelization process and extend the roast times to increase the body and remove acidity. Designed for cold extraction only, expect notes of Cocoa, Dates and a thicken creamy texture.

Cold Brew

Sourced from our friends at Pergamino (now a decade-long relationship in Colombia), comes this remarkably bright and clean offering from Antioquia. Pergamino also operates one of the best micro mills for specialty coffee which holds major sway over quality and informs the final cup. Notice the Malic acidity in the form of green apples upfront followed by tannins like oolong tea, performing well on both filter and espresso.

VARIETY: Caturra Chiroso
PROCESS: Washed, Raised-Bed Dried
ELEVATION: 1,850 Meters
CUP: Green Apple, Sugar Cane, Oolong Tea, Almond

Colombia Aqualinda

Hacienda La Papaya has evolved into one of the most prominent farms in South America and additionally put Ecuador’s specialty coffee on center stage. This densely sweet, natural processed typica demonstrates its value with notes of molasses and rose hip. Typica is one of the original heirloom varieties of arabica coffee that’s scarcity is becoming evident due to low yields even though the cup quality is spectacular. We celebrate Juan Peña as a producer that chooses quality and craftsmanship over quantity of exports.

Ecuador Hacienda La Papaya Natural

Shantawene Village always produces some of our favorite offerings annually, however this nano-lot is unique. This pilot fermentation uses new techniques of oxygen control to slow bacteria growth and increase fermentation time. The results are not just about removing mucilage from the coffee seeds (beans) like normal processing, but converting soluble sugars and organic acids creating extraordinary tropical fruit and delicate floral flavors.

VARIETY: Heirloom
PROCESS: Limited Oxygen Natural, Raised-Bed Dried
ELEVATION: 1905 Meters
CUP: Tangerine, Lavender, Sweet Tea, Strawberry

Ethiopia Shantawene Low O2 Natural

The rare and many times falsified “Pink Bourbon” variety is a bit controversial. With its perfumed nature, it imparts a delicate, bright and floral cup that is delicious. Many “Pink Bourbon” samples and micro-lots we cup or see on the farm tend to be normal bourbon varieties showing different maturities. However, this gem from Juan Jimenez is the real deal. Boasting of citrus blossom, tea-like qualities and a sweet floral honey, this coffee is made for filter brewing. If you are meticulous about your coffee preparation, this complex Colombia coffee belongs in your catalogue.

Colombia Juan Jimenez

Colombia Aponte Village is nestled within a peak elevation of 2100m in the lush Nariño region. Farmed by the Inga Indigenous community, these coffees are intensely sweet like honey accompanied by an underlying fruit note of apple. This specific lot was decaffeinated using an EA sugar cane natural process. Be sure to also check out our fully caffeinated version allowing for the enjoyment—day or night—of Aponte Village.

VARIETY: Caturra, Bourbon
PROCESS: Honey, EA Decaf
ELEVATION: 2100 Meters
CUP: Almond Pastry, Lime, Cocoa, Apple

Decaf Colombia Aponte Village

Every now and then the sequel is better than the original. Once again, we are honored to share the coffee stage with our mate, Propaganda. This intricately developed coffee manifests itself in different ways depending on extraction technique and lifecycle post-roast. Here in the lab, we noticed pervasive complex notes of stone fruit that start bright like apricot or cherry and then transform as it rests resembling peach and plum.

VARIETY: Heirloom
PROCESS: Washed, Raised-Bed Dried
ELEVATION: 2000 Meters
CUP: Stone Fruit, Assam Tea, Dried Berries, Silky

The Culture

We are so excited for this offering. Our first Costa Rica Cup of Excellence winner hailing from the famed region of Volcan Azul. Alejo C. Jiménez is a fifth generation coffee producer that comes from a long lineage of incredible agriculture. Using a state-of-the-art, 5 day anaerobic ferment processing method, this coffee carries loud notes of sophisticated berries, confectioner sugar, rum and bright, juicy passion fruit. This coffee is special and not to be missed. We suggest this for filter only.

VARIETY: SL-28
PROCESS: 5 Day Anaerobic Natural, Raised Bed & Mechanical Dried
ELEVATION: 1600 Meters
CUP: Raspberry Jam, Confectioners Sugar, Rum, Passion Fruit

Costa Rica Volcan Azul Anaerobic

In the tropical volcanic soil of Rwanda just west of the famed Lake Kivu, lies the Kanzu coffee station that mills this group of smallholders farmers. This coffee showcases a rich exotic sweetness tasting of different caramelization levels of complex sugars and stone fruits. A great coffee to introduce an origin and unique flavor profile that we don’t purchase from often. The tactile is round, silky and juicy. Performs well as an espresso or filter coffee.

VARIETY: Bourbon
PROCESS: Washed, Parabolic Bed Dried
ELEVATION: 1800-2100 Meters
CUP: Honeycomb, Plum, Maple Syrup, Apricot

Rwanda Kanzu #5

This compounded fruit-forward coffee not only performs elegantly in the cup but also made history this year. 2020 marked the first Ethiopia Cup of Excellence auction for the most preeminent coffee farmers and we are honored to share what will inevitably become a superb annual event. Join us in this historic agricultural achievement in dedication, intelligence, and talent. Congrats to Gare Ware Jilo and his amazing coffee.

VARIETY: Kurume
PROCESS: Natural, Raised Bed Dried
ELEVATION: 1900-2100 Meters
CUP: Tangerine, Blackberry Compote, Apple, Sugar Cane

Ethiopia Gare Ware Jilo Cup of Excellence #5

Finca Santa Rosa is nestled in the northern Chalatenango mountains of El Salvador and owned by our good friend Jorge Raul Rivera. Winner of many Cup of Excellence awards, the farm exclusively grows the Pacamara varietal and specializes in unique harvesting and processing techniques. We’ve worked with Jorge for six years now and always look forward to visiting his farm or hosting him here at the roastery. It’s an honor to serve the best El Salvador has to offer.

VARIETY: Pacamara
PROCESS: Honey
ELEVATION: 1850 Meters
CUP: Concord Grape, Demerara Sugar, Rose, Dark Chocolate

El Salvador Santa Rosa Honey

“This coffee, sourced by the fam at Onyx, is the perfect example of a coffee built to be enjoyed—bright, fruit-forward, and incredibly perfumed—its value speaks volumes on its own. Cxffeeblack is a social enterprise that seeks to reintroduce the black history of coffee into black communities and help reimagine its black future. Cxffeeblack believes that African peoples, learning from African origins, can remix it and sample it from their history to elevate their present experience, building generational wealth throughout the diaspora.”
-Bartholomew Jones

Cxffeeblack

Many consider Peru to be the culinary capitol of the world. Dramatic, complex elevation changes and an abundance of unique micro-climates lead to a thriving agronomy culture. This unique box set highlights our appreciation for Peruvian culture and technique by offering both coffee and cacao produced on its majestic landscape. Coffee and cacao share many similarities chemically and geographically. They even shares processes such as fermentation and drying techniques. As you sip and snack, admire the agricultural talent in Peru through compounded deliciousness!

Onyx Coffee Lab

4.1

Onyx Coffee Lab

🇺🇸 United States

Served in Coffee Shops

Coffee Roasts

Cold Brew

Colombia Aponte Village

Colombia Aqualinda

Colombia Juan Jimenez

Costa Rica Volcan Azul Anaerobic

Cxffeeblack

Decaf Colombia Aponte Village

Eclipse

Ecuador Hacienda La Papaya Natural

El Salvador Santa Rosa Honey

El Salvador Santa Rosa Washed

Ethiopia Gare Ware Jilo Cup of Excellence #5

Ethiopia Hambela Kirite

Ethiopia Shantawene Low O2 Natural

Geometry

Kenya Gathaithi OT-15

Monarch

Peru Coffee & Cacao Box Set

Power Nap

Rwanda Kanzu #5

Southern Weather

The Culture

Tropical Weather

Coffee archive

Costa Rica Las Lajas SL-28 Natural

Ethiopia Bensa Shantawene Natural

Ethiopia Beriti

Kenya Rungeto Peaberry

New Coffee Review