You walk up to the coffee aisle of the grocery store, and your heart drops. Your choices are the same coffee grounds your grandpa runs through a coffee maker twice your age or a pound of boutique coffee that costs more than you make in an hour. All you want is a smooth, approachable coffee to start your morning off right, but you care about things like quality, environmentalism, and fair wages. Is it possible to put your money where your mouth is while catering to your tastebuds? Consider Onyx Coffee Lab’s Southern Weather coffee, which the roaster proclaims as its “house blend” due to its balance of citrusy acidity and full-bodied chocolate notes.
Onyx Coffee Lab brings sustainably-grown coffee to its solar-powered roasteries for a coffee process that will make the next generation proud. And although 10 ounces may run $16, Onyx brings such transparency and authenticity to the coffee scene that you’ll gladly hand over that cash for their goods.
Origins and Flavors of Southern Weather Coffee
The coffee beans in the Southern Weather blend hail from Columbia and Ethiopia. Onyx is unique in that it begins with a specific flavor profile and searches for its beans accordingly. Take Southern Weather, for instance — the taste of washed Columbian and Ethiopian beans, grown at 6,000 feet of elevation, brought Onyx just what it wanted.
Milk chocolate, plum, candied walnuts, and juicy citrus finish to leave you perky and ready to get on with your day. Columbian beans are known for their caramelly sweetness and nutty undertones, which brings forth the sweet and earthy notes in this wonderous blend. Ethiopian beans are notable for their sensitive notes — the delicate, floral, mild, and tranquil flavors bring forth Southern Weather’s plum-like character. Combined, sweet and silky flavors like chocolate spring forth, while the mixture of acidities brings on the bright finish.
What’s so great about this house blend is its ability to stand on its own or blend well with milk — dairy and non-dairy alike. Southern Weather is the sort of coffee you might find your local barista pulling from behind the bar. Balanced and capable, this is the coffee flavor your mornings have been missing.
Sustainability and Transparency
Incredible taste aside, Onyx is all about sustainability. The company’s environmentalism defines its own principles and contacts the coffee industry as a whole. It uses compostable, plant-based mailing bags that are durable enough to withstand the rigors of the postal service. Its entire roasting and production area is solar-powered and uses a roaster that reduces its natural gas usage by more than 60%. Finally, Onyx takes maximum precautions to source only sustainably-grown beans, believing that sustainable coffee is quality coffee.
Alongside sustainability, Onyx commits to transparency. Ever wonder why specialty coffee can seem so expensive? To make its price tags understandable to consumers, Onyx simply displays its balance sheet. Cost items include the Fair Trade price (which Onyx doubles), production expenses, and green coffee bean expenses (which cover ethical coffee purchases). For instance, a quick website review shows that a 10-ounce bag of Southern Weather costs Onyx a total of $8.47 and retails at $16.
Get Your Own Bag of Southern Weather Coffee
Onyx offers four different purchase options for Southern Weather. A 4-ounce bag goes for $10, while 10 ounces costs $16. Two pounds will run you $42, or you can get 5 pounds for $90. And if you just can’t get enough of the balmy and brilliant Southern Weather, you can subscribe to a new delivery every week (or month) and save 5% on each order.