Coffee Description
This juicy coffee launches with delicate florals, maple, and mandarin orange notes leading into almond, nectarine, and brown sugar. Pair these flavors with sweetened acidity and caramelized body for a balanced, versatile cup. Must have.
Roast Level from the Roaster
Refers to the roast level in comparison with other coffees from the roaster
Light
Variety
Colombia
Process
Washed
Elevation
1850-1900 masl
Region
Nariño
About Maria Pajajoy of Colombia
On their last trip to Colombia, Onyx roasters spent a week cupping with the FUDAM association and were drawn to Maria Pajajoy’s coffee. Maria inherited Finca La Mina from her father and has worked extremely hard to bring it back into production. Motivated through the specialty coffee program to look at her farm with fresh eyes, Maria hopes to grow her plantation in the next couple of years. Currently she is working with both FUDAM, a new association of coffee growers, and Pergamino exporters.
According to Onyx, flying into the Nariño region is "straight up crazy." The airstrip is along a 3000 meter-high sheer mountain terrace accessible by small prop planes that often must make two or three attempts before sticking the landing. Once safely on the ground, it takes a good three hours drive through breathtaking ravines and mountain ranges to reach the coffee farms. No wonder Juan Valdez needed a mule!
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.
