Coffee Description
Sweet and juicy, this standout coffee features notes of orange zest, brown sugar, and kiwi. A top-of-the-wish-list microlot, it’s complex yet delicate, with satiny mouthfeel and hints of spice. Comforting. Clean. Balanced.
Roast Level from the Roaster
Refers to the roast level in comparison with other coffees from the roaster
Light/Medium
Variety
Caturra
Process
Washed
Elevation
1850-1900 masl
Region
Nariño
About Armando Popayan of Colombia
Armando Popayan has done it again at Finca La Cuerda. He’s produced another standout crop of coffee that does Colombia proud. He cultivates approximately 8000 coffee trees on his 2.5 hectares of land perched in the mountains of Colombia 1800 meters above sea level in the San Lorenzo Municipality of Nariño, and every year he delivers quality to the cupping table.
For this particular Caturra microlot, Armando first washed, then fermented the beans for 16 hours before drying them on raised parabolic beds. Meticulous in his processes, Armando is also a member of the FUDAM Association, a 100-member cooperative based in the hub of Nariño region, La Union. This partnership lends him further creds due to the strength of their milling practices and marketing logistics.
Nariño, Colombia
Onyx Coffee Lab
Lest the myth perpetuate that specialty coffee does not come from Arkansas, Onyx Coffee Lab is blowing that particular urban legend out of the water while creating a few of their own. Husband-wife owners Jon and Andrea Allen have rapidly taken the coffee world by storm with their combination of art and science.
The magic starts with sourcing, with countless small sample batches from coffee importers and with direct visits to farms around the world. "I know direct trade means a lot of different things to different people, but for us if we don’t put money in the producers hands we won’t call it direct trade," says Jon. Once found, the coffees are carefully roasted in twenty-pound or smaller batches, then shared with the three Onyx cafés and over 150 wholesale customers in thirty states.
Clearly Onyx Coffee Lab knows what they're doing: this northwest Arkansas matrix of coffee know-how routinely cleans house at the U.S. Coffee Championships; Andrea Allen placed first in the 2020 Barista Championship, while Elika Liftee placed first in the 2020 Brewers Cup Championship, and they both went on to the 2021 World Coffee Championships to place in 2nd place for Barista and 3rd place for Brewers Cup. Onyx has been chosen by Architectural Digest as Arkansas' most beautiful coffee shop, garnered multiple Good Food Awards, and been described as the "Best bags of coffee you can buy online" in GQ.
