Coffee Description
Silken honey. Peaches and cream soda. This coffee is loaded with florals, juicy with kiwi and champagne notes. Vibrant, sparkling acidity meets smooth, silky mouthfeel for a stand out coffee that finds its balance by melding surprise and comfort into the same cup.
Roast Level from the Roaster
Refers to the roast level in comparison with other coffees from the roaster
Light
Variety
Process
Washed
Elevation
2100 masl
Region
Sidama
About Smallholder producers of Ethiopia
Nearing the tiny village of Shantawene deep in the Sidama region of Ethiopia, jolting past a school, many small huts, a ping-pong table on a triangle of grass, and children race along the dusty roads shouting “You! You! You.” Here we find the Shantawne coffee mill. Since it’s in the foothills of the Bombe Mountains, higher in elevation than many of the mills in the region, and coffee ripens slower here. Thus Shantawene swings into full production a few weeks after its sister mill of Qonqona.
Shantawene has a 5-disc pulper which is scrubbed and polished after each batch of coffee goes through it. Interestingly, this particular pulper tends to leave a bit more fruit on the cherries and we find that contributes to a beautiful unique smell and possibly more vibrancy coffee in the cup.
Sidama, Ethiopia
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.
