When Jon Allen founded Onyx Coffee Lab in Arkansas one of the first things he did was get in touch with other roasters to ask how much they were paying for each of their coffees. Jon was disappointed that many roasters he reached out to were hesitant to answer what he felt was a simple question. Transparency is essential in the coffee industry. So many coffee producers live in poverty. Because of this experience, Jon decided that Onyx would value transparency in their coffee buying process. Anyone that buys coffee from Onyx can look on their website and see exactly how much was paid for their coffee. Onyx also shows the commodity coffee price at time of purchase and fair trade price, so customers can see how much more than those Onyx paid their producers.

When buying coffees, Onyx goes beyond paying a fair price. Onyx also pays the full cost of coffee purchased outright so producers can immediately reinvest the funds for their upcoming season. This is different than the majority of roasters that take a year or often more to pay for the coffee they have purchased. They also pay more for quality, even if it is above the producer’s asking price. If a crop turns out especially well and Onyx’s Q-Graders rate it as better than the asking price, Onyx will simply pay the producers more for the coffee.

One of the many criteria Onyx imposes on themselves when selecting producers to work with is that they must travel and meet with the producers in person to tour the farm and cup the coffee. Unfortunately, going forward they may have to alter their criteria as travel to and from the US has been quite difficult and they likely won’t be able to visit all the farms they purchase from for the upcoming season. Still, we are confident their vetting process will continue to be one of the best in the industry and their coffee will be as delicious and unique as ever.

Matthew from Brothers Coffee was fortunate enough to be able to attend the recent US Coffee Championships in Costa Mesa, CA. Onyx got as close as you can get to sweeping the competition, with founder Andrea Allen winning 1st place barista and Onyx employees Elika Liftee and Lance Hedrick winning 1st and 2nd place brewers. Lance was our wholesale consultant and gave us great recommendations that we’re sure you’ll all enjoy!