Costa Rica Las Lajas Natural Colombia John Diaz Gesha Peru La Margarita Gesha Cold Brew Peru Nueva Alianza Gesha COE #9
ONYX IS MY PAL
FREE shipping for orders over $40
TEA:
New Teas offerings have launched now in eco sachets. We've taken weighing to the tenth of a gram out of your hands so that each cup is perfect. We suggest trying Onyx Tealight which has organic oats and honey along with black tea and cinnamon to create a complex sweetness and silky mouthfeel tea experience.
JON'S WISDOM:
Twitter is the K-cup of Coffee....
YOU'RE WELCOME:
FREE shipping for orders over $40
TRENDING COFFEE:
Costa Rica Las Lajas Natural Colombia John Diaz Gesha Peru La Margarita Gesha Cold Brew Peru Nueva Alianza Gesha COE #9
ONYX IS MY PAL
FREE shipping for orders over $40
TEA:
New Teas offerings have launched now in eco sachets. We've taken weighing to the tenth of a gram out of your hands so that each cup is perfect. We suggest trying Onyx Tealight which has organic oats and honey along with black tea and cinnamon to create a complex sweetness and silky mouthfeel tea experience.
The Perez family has worked with us for years and continually impress us with their commitment to quality on their highly respected farm, Finca Isnul. This Pacamara variety displays a wonderful assortment of juicy stone fruits, sweet nuts, and cocoa tea-like notes. Insul has won or placed in the top at Guatemala's Cup of Excellence every year.
Traditional
Modern
Variety:
Pacamara
Process:
Washed & Mechanically Dried
Elevation:
1750 Meters
Cup:
Variety:
Pacamara
Process:
Washed & Mechanically Dried
Elevation:
1750 Meters
Cup:
Nectarine, Almond, Black Tea, Lemonade
Story
Dozens of accolades are attached to the name of Family Bonds coffee. Each year we make the trek to Huehuetenango to cup alongside the Perez family at the end of the harvest. Prior to 2018 this included a six hour drive through the mountains of Guatemala. (Or four hours if Danny is driving…) Now there is a direct flight which will take you straight to Huehue on a prop plane. Each year we are met by the unparalleled hospitality of the Perez family. This season was quite different, as COVID radically changed the way we purchased coffee. As the harvest drew close, it was logical for us to move a full container of coffee with Family Bonds, and they were generous in helping us plan for that. They shipped all the vetted lots for our selection, and we cupped them in our homes in March, carefully selected two Pacamara lots that we believed represented the best of Finca Isnul. The Perez family worked hard to dry mill these lots with a limited team, who no doubt put in long hours to prepare these coffees for export. While we may have not been able to visit them directly, their hard work and hospitality shone through each step of the way. We look forward to next season when we can travel down to their facility to cup their shining coffees alongside them.
THE HISTORY OF FINCA ISNUL BY DANNY PEREZ
“This farm has belonged to our mother's family since 1940 and to my grandfather since 1969. It was a small farm, but with hard work and loans, the farm became one of the biggest farms of the region with 160 hectares. Unfortunately, our grandfather passed away on March of 2015. Now his two daughters, Leticia (my mother) and Lorena (my aunt) Anzueto Sandoval are the new owners of the farm. We are working the farm with the help of the 5th generation of coffee growers. Starting the process from the ground up, we are now processing, milling, cupping and exporting the finest Guatemalan coffees directly to the best roasters in the world.”
WASHED PACAMARA
Processing in coffee refers to the conversion of the raw coffee cherry into green coffee, a finished product for roasters to manipulate. Washed coffee can also be known as “wet-processed.” It refers to the removal of the fruit that covers the beans (seeds) before they are laid to dry. Density sorts Finca Isnul's coffee by fully immersing the cherries in water. The floaters are taken out of the main harvest and sold as a sub-product. The cherries that drop in water are then squeezed through a screen called a pulper. The fruit/skin travels down one shoot, while the coffee beans go into a large tank. The seeds at this point still are covered in a sticky, mucilage-like substance, think the stringy fruit left on a peach pit.
From here the coffee goes through a 36-hour dry fermentation. This step is a delicate time in processing where bacteria are eating and converting the mucilage and changing the flavor of the coffee. If this fermentation happens for too long and the coffee becomes vinegary, too little and you end up drying coffee with mucilage semi-intact. The coffee is finally set out to dry on raised beds, allowing airflow and even drying among all the beans. All of these steps have to be subtly altered depending on temperature, time of the harvest, rainfall and other factors. The Perez family has shown incredible consistency and attention to detail. We are incredibly honored to showcase this beautiful washed Pacamara from Finca Insul.
The subject of paying for green coffee is inherently complicated. While the amount paid is very important, the payment terms and type of contract negotiated during the purchase are also paramount. Paying $5/lb of coffee can be a great price, but could be detrimental to a producer if the payment terms exceed that of their needs. Here we will dive into not only what was paid for the coffee, but how the coffee was purchased. There is a glossary of terms to be found below which will aid in your understanding of industry terms.
Farm Gate - This reflects what is paid to the producer of the coffee at the farm level. Oftentimes in terms of our relationship coffees, FOB is fairly close to the farm gate price, except for countries like Ethiopia and Kenya, when it is very difficult to trace back all the way to the producer.
FOB - Free on Board. This means that the seller is responsible for any overland fees that happen before the coffee is on board the ship. This is our most frequently listed green cost, as it is the most simple way to present what we pay a seller, but it does not reflect what the person growing the coffee was paid.
EXW- This most often reflects the 'spot' price that we paid for a coffee. All of the cost is paid by the importer, and more often than not the FOB price as well as the transport costs are unknown.
$4,50
Transportation
This number represents the cost we incurred while the coffee was moved from the producing country to our roastery in Arkansas. The amount of information we supply here is correlated to the transparency grade we issue the coffee. The better the grade, the more we can break down this information.
The price listed below is the cost we incurred while moving this palletized coffee from New Jersey to our roastery in Arkansas. All other import and export fees are unknown at this time and included in the Green Cost.
$0,11
Production Cost
The following list includes many of the costs associated with producing our coffee. We have always maintained transparency as a principle but have lumped these things under the label of “production costs” without going into detail. While the following list isn’t exhaustive, hopefully it gives you a picture of the work, expense, and investment involved in executing coffee at the level that we do. At this time we are listing our cost of production for each pound of coffee at around $4.85. There are obviously many other aspects to running a business such as shrink, mistakes, new equipment and maintenance, but this works as an arbitrary cost associated with making one box of coffee.
Fixed Costs
These are costs associated with simply having a business. Things like utilities of internet, natural gas, phones, rent, business licenses, fees, etc. These things increase every year. For example, most commercial leases increase by 2% every year. We periodically look at these costs and try to reduce expenses, but work in this area are small moves of the needle as these are mostly the same and usually increase every year. In 2019, we invested in a solar energy system for our roastery. It was installed in 2020 and we are seeing a great return in terms of monthly costs of electricity.
Packaging
This is all the things that go into packaging the coffee from the roaster to your house. There’s the biodegradable bag, the recyclable box, the compostable mailer, different boxes for bulk shipping, the paper that pads the coffee, tape, and a few odds and ends. (Read about our new retail packaging HERE). These costs are separate from the green and roasted coffee but a part of the cost of producing coffee ready to ship and consume. We want our coffee to arrive in a secure fashion, looking like it did when it left our roastery: with style and design but also keeping the environment in mind. Shipping packages inevitably has waste associated and we’re working towards sustainability at each step.
Labor
We are proud of our team and the way they are so thoroughly dedicated to excellence and to being the best at their respective roles across the industry. We work to make coffee jobs both sustainable and celebrated. We pay salaries, provide health insurance, and give regular raises. Our coffee doesn’t taste the way it does without all of our team working had and performing at a high level. Often we have a handful of staff that get celebrated, but everyone on our team contributes and is valuable. Our roastery production crew has earned a small commission on coffees sold since 2017. Onyx is not just a brand or a design or a café, we are truly made by every person on our team.
We all know it takes work to make anything. Our approach has more labor involved than you may think. Because we visit every Relationship Coffee producer, that means our green buying team of Jon and Dakota typically spend a total of six months traveling. We’re committed to visiting and cupping on the ground, this inevitably is an investment of time, of money, of long lay overs, of encountering government coupes and protests, and forging some of the greatest friendships and seeing some of the most beautiful landscapes imaginable.
Another place we are highly invested in labor is in our coffee quality control. Our QC manager literally cups every single batch of coffee that we roast, scores it, makes notes, gives feedback. These records can be found in Find My Roast. This is essentially a full time job. This is something that we technically don’t have to do, but in chasing our goal of having the world’s best coffee we can’t know exactly how each roast measures up without cupping it.
We have more roasters than we technically need. We roast in small batch size, meaning we don’t max out the capacity of our roasting machines. This translates into us roasting more actual batches and necessitates more time. This concept is driven by our desire for quality.
We have a creative team that helps create all things visible, digital, and print. These folks are very talented and have really helped push the dream of Onyx to the next level. We believe that coffee can inherently be great, but having something that looks and feels good helps inform expectations, helps bring value, and tells the stories in coffee in a way that is tangible and important.
These are a few of the jobs we feel really have more involvement than might be imagined, but throughout Onyx there are touch points of intentionally positioned team members to help create the best possible coffee experience.
Coffee Roasting
Roasting itself creates loss in coffee. There’s the straightforward fact that when coffee is roasted it loses between 7% and 8% of its weight, meaning that if you bought 1000lbs of a lot you end up with 920lbs of roasted coffee. We also use what’s called an "optical sorter" which sorts all of our coffee after its roasted and kicks out 2% of all coffees. Sorting just creates an overall cleaner coffee, eliminating any outlying beans that are discolored, are quakers, etc. This totals around 10% loss of coffee before it even is bagged for retail or wholesale. We donate this rejected coffee to local food banks, non-profits and halfway houses.
Then there’s profiling the coffee. We roast test batches before we release coffees to dial in roasting profiles, and we often make multiple tweaks. The coffee is then cupped multiple times, used to create brewing recipes and guides and used in training. We also pull a sample of each batch of coffee to quality control.
We are committed to shipping only the absolute best coffees to our customers, and these measures—although costly—are in place to help create trust between you and us.
Taxes
We all know what this is. We set aside and submit money every quarter for taxes along with paying all of the weekly and monthly taxes we are obligated to pay. This can be tough for a small business as there are ebbs and flows in cash flow, and taxes are often not paid in conjunction with the sales season.
$4,85
Fair Trade Min.
Since coffee was first sold, producers have sought to increase or maintain the price of their product. In 1988, the first certified Fair Trade coffee was sold in Holland as a partnership with a cooperative in Mexico. This was a major stepping stone in coffee trading, as it promised farmers a safety net when the volatile commodity market of coffee plummeted. Fair Trade ensures that farmers will be paid a minimum price for their product, which serves mostly as a safety net when all other prices drop. As the specialty market has grown, criticism for Fair Trade has grown alongside it. Consumers and coffee professionals alike have misunderstood Fair Trade Certified coffees to be the answer to a growing coffee price crisis. Many have used these ethical labels to continue to pay coffee producers a minimum price for a product that has exploded in popularity through the years. We are careful not to minimize what Fair Trade and other certifications have accomplished through the years, viewing a set minimum price as a stepping stone to a larger conversation about how the industry treats valuable producing partners. As we avoid settling for the bare minimum, we always pay at least double Fair Trade minimums based on the quality of coffee we purchase.
In a recent decision, Fairtrade International made a historic raise to its coffee prices. The new Fairtrade minimum price for washed arabica coffee will be $1.80/Lb, an increase of $0.40/Lb. Additionally, the guaranteed premium for coffee sold as both Fairtrade + Organic (FTO) is increasing from $0.30/Lb to $0.40/Lb. These changes bring the base price for FTO to $2.40/Lb, up 26% from the current $1.90/Lb level. The new Fairtrade prices will come into effect for contracts issued from August 1, 2023, onwards.
$1,60
C Market
In the modern world, coffee is valued as one of the most important agricultural exports of developing nations. Most coffee in the world is produced as an ubiquitous green seed to be roasted by large roasters and sold on a shelf with little information about where it comes from and who grew it. Like other agricultural commodities, coffee is traded in future contracts on many exchanges. This price is dictated by global economic forces such as supply and demand, which is set by the largest suppliers and the largest buyers. The price of commodity coffee has been in major decline since the collapse of the International Coffee Agreement, and also due to forces outside the coffee industry as a whole. The minimum price that a producer has gotten for their product since the collapse of the ICA has hovered around $1.20/ lb, but within the last few years it is most frequently found to be under $1.00/ lb, which many industry experts consider to be under the cost of production. The commodity price of coffee never dictates the prices we pay for coffee, due to the precedence that quality takes in the specialty industry. We factor in cup score, variety, process, country of origin, and other factors when drawing up our private contracts with producing partners. Choosing to list the commodity market price at the time of our purchase shows the distinct difference in markets, as we strive for a more holistic and honest approach to the way that coffee is purchased.
$1,57
Cup Score
As we travel the world and taste coffees, we evaluate all the coffees we taste on a scoresheet developed by coffee professionals around the world. Through this, we can participate in and use the language of an industry standard set of guidelines. This allows us to honestly assign a numerical score to any coffee we taste, creating the ability for a starting point in a discussion of the quality of each coffee. We list the cup score of each coffee we purchase as part of our ethos of transparency, not as an end all be all statement of drinkability. Many of us agree that we’d rather drink an 86 point coffee rather than an 88 point coffee. We list it because the cup score serves as a reference of quality, allowing producers to negotiate higher prices based on the hard work they’ve done to achieve this quality. This is the imperfect industry answer to the commodification of coffee, which can be bought and sold based on economics, rather than the nuances and sweetness in the cup…
Lot size is seemingly straightforward when taken at face value, but it gets more convoluted as you look closely at the vernacular of the specialty coffee industry. Terms such as micro-lot and macro-lot get awfully blurry as we buy coffee from different parts of the world. Like many other things in the coffee industry, there is not one catchall term that will tell you if your coffee is indeed a micro-lot. The size of a lot rarely informs us of the quality of that lot, which is a difficult concept to shake coming out of the early years of specialty coffee. Lot size informs us of one thing: the size of that lot. We can, however, take this time to talk about how coffee is separated at the production level, and how we make sense of it from country to country.
The first way we see coffee divided up is by region. These lots are often built up of many farms, Coops, or washing stations. This often signifies that the lot was built to reflect the flavor characteristics of the region. Colombia comes to mind when we think of regional blends, and these blends can often be very valuable to roasters and producers if transparency is upheld and fair prices are paid. We partner with friends like Pergamino Coffee to build regional lots, where within we seek to uphold transparency and quality.
The second way we see coffee represented is by a cooperative, farm, or washing station. Oftentimes this is where you begin to see 'micro-lot' sized offerings, which can often be built from several parts of each farm, or a few farms in one area. (Sounds a bit like a regional blend, doesn't it?) These lots represent an entire harvest, where individual day lots are blended to form an offering that is of a decent exportable size. This ranges from just 100-300 kg all the way up to several full containers of exportable green. One thing is to note, forming a single farm lot can often take just as much cupping and profiling as the large regional blends, due to each day or weeks pickings being separated and cupped to ensure they fall into quality standards.
The final way we see coffee represented is by day lot. This is where terroir comes into play, due to organic variations in the environment such as shade, soil type, tree age, and many other factors. Nearly any quality control program that is on a farm level will evaluate harvest this way. This allows producers to isolate parts of the farm or crop that is facing some challenges, as well as to select truly remarkable day lots to represent the pinnacle of their work. These small offerings range from just a few kilograms up to several thousand. We see these lots most often during auctions such as Best of Panama and Cup of Excellence, where they fetch high prices. Each one of those lots not only represents the hard work of each producer, but they also represent the amount of coffee that was filtered out during this quality control stage. This focus on the minuscule may seem like semantics to some, but as you zoom back out to your cup you realize just how many decisions were made before it arrived in your hands.
∞
Transparency Grade
These ratings do not signify the “ethical grade” of a purchased coffee, instead they are created to show data to everyone. These ratings simply signify how much we understand what the grower of our coffees actually make. This is not an “us” vs “them” mentality of Roasters & Producers against Importers & Exporters or Farmers vs Customers that narrative can be damaging and usually full of fallacies. All parties are needed for this beautiful industry to thrive and our position is that sharing data has no moral position. It is simply numbers and math. We’ll leave the morale high ground to others even if this data is filtered through preconceived notions.
A+
This rating signifies we have published the price and payment went directly to the producer as well as all parties involved in logistics. Money exchanged was only though Onyx and producing parties. No procurement payments or bank financing were made. Mills, Exporter, and Importer are all known and quality scores are published. Farm gate, FOB, Milling, Logistics proven.
A
This rating signifies we have published the price and payment went directly to the producer . Money exchanged was only though Onyx and producing parties. Importer was hired to move coffee in the United States. No procurement payments or bank financing were made. Mills, Exporter, and Importer are all known and quality scores are published. Farm gate, FOB, Milling, Logistics proven.
A-
This rating signifies we have purchased directly from a cooperative or association and published price of FOB and wire to the head of a Cooperative or Farmers Association who pays members we are working with at Origin. We ask and publish what farm gate price was that is reported from farmers. Mills, Exporter, and Importer are all known and quality scores are published. FOB, Milling, Logistics proven.
B+
This rating signifies a published price of payment that went directly to a producer but producer also buys cherry from other neighboring farms. Verbal confirmation and published prices of Farm gate are acquired for coffees, but we only pay producer in contact. Mills, Exporter, and Importer are all known and quality scores are published.
FOB, Milling, Logistics proven.
B
This rating signifies we have published FOB price and pay directly to Cooperative or Exporter at Origin. Farm Gate price is proprietary or lacks of records of payments. Mills, Exporter, and Importer are all known and quality scores are published.
B-
This rating signifies we purchased this coffee from an Importer and visited farm, cooperative or exporter with the importer. We negotiate the contract with the importer representative and not the producer or cooperative. We pay directly to the importing company, Farm Gate price is provided by importer and published. Price, Logistics and Quality scores are published.
C+
This rating signifies we purchased this coffee from an Importer. We pay directly to the company. FOB price was provided by importer and is published, Farm gate price is unknown or proprietary information and unshared. Price and Quality scores are published.
C
This rating signifies we purchased this coffee from an Importer. We pay directly to the company. FOB and Farm Gate price is unknown or proprietary information and unshared. Price and Quality scores are published.
F
This means we pillaged the farm and stole their most precious Gesha lots only to fatten our wallets and eat at prefix restaurants on the weekend.
A+
Transparency
We as a company believe that transparency is unbelievably important. The point of listing things below is not to justify what we charge or what we profit, but to give
a realistic snapshot of the industry and how Specialty Coffee can be different than other commodity industries.
$9.46
$4,50
$0,11
$4,85
$1,60
$1,57
∞
A+
Transparency
We as a company believe that transparency is unbelievably important. The point of listing things below is not to justify what we charge or what we profit, but to give
a realistic snapshot of the industry and how Specialty Coffee can be different than other commodity industries.
$4,50
$0,11
$4,85
$9.46
$1,60
$1,57
87
0kg
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Insul has won or placed in the top at Guatemala's Cup of Excellence every year.\u003c\/p\u003e","body_bg_color":"F0EEE7cf","body_text_color":"dark","page_alignment":"","batch_size":"Evergreen","badge":"","origin_type":"single","is_preorder":false,"hide_quantity_helper":false,"hide_sustainability_link":false,"preorder_ship_date":"","view_only_product":false,"hide_trad_mod":false,"trad_mod":"8","variety":["Pacamara"],"variety_icon":"","process":["Washed \u0026 Mechanically Dried"],"process_icon":"","elevation":"1750","elevation_icon":"","cup":["Nectarine","Almond","Black Tea","Lemonade"],"cup_icon":"","story":"\u003cp\u003eDozens of accolades are attached to the name of Family Bonds coffee. Each year we make the trek to Huehuetenango to cup alongside the Perez family at the end of the harvest. Prior to 2018 this included a six hour drive through the mountains of Guatemala. (Or four hours if Danny is driving…) Now there is a direct flight which will take you straight to Huehue on a prop plane. Each year we are met by the unparalleled hospitality of the Perez family. This season was quite different, as COVID radically changed the way we purchased coffee. As the harvest drew close, it was logical for us to move a full container of coffee with Family Bonds, and they were generous in helping us plan for that. They shipped all the vetted lots for our selection, and we cupped them in our homes in March, carefully selected two Pacamara lots that we believed represented the best of Finca Isnul. The Perez family worked hard to dry mill these lots with a limited team, who no doubt put in long hours to prepare these coffees for export. While we may have not been able to visit them directly, their hard work and hospitality shone through each step of the way. We look forward to next season when we can travel down to their facility to cup their shining coffees alongside them. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eTHE HISTORY OF FINCA ISNUL BY DANNY PEREZ\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“This farm has belonged to our mother's family since 1940 and to my grandfather since 1969. It was a small farm, but with hard work and loans, the farm became one of the biggest farms of the region with 160 hectares. Unfortunately, our grandfather passed away on March of 2015. Now his two daughters, Leticia (my mother) and Lorena (my aunt) Anzueto Sandoval are the new owners of the farm. We are working the farm with the help of the 5th generation of coffee growers. Starting the process from the ground up, we are now processing, milling, cupping and exporting the finest Guatemalan coffees directly to the best roasters in the world.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWASHED PACAMARA\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eProcessing in coffee refers to the conversion of the raw coffee cherry into green coffee, a finished product for roasters to manipulate. Washed coffee can also be known as “wet-processed.” It refers to the removal of the fruit that covers the beans (seeds) before they are laid to dry. Density sorts Finca Isnul's coffee by fully immersing the cherries in water. The floaters are taken out of the main harvest and sold as a sub-product. The cherries that drop in water are then squeezed through a screen called a pulper. The fruit\/skin travels down one shoot, while the coffee beans go into a large tank. The seeds at this point still are covered in a sticky, mucilage-like substance, think the stringy fruit left on a peach pit.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFrom here the coffee goes through a 36-hour dry fermentation. This step is a delicate time in processing where bacteria are eating and converting the mucilage and changing the flavor of the coffee. If this fermentation happens for too long and the coffee becomes vinegary, too little and you end up drying coffee with mucilage semi-intact. The coffee is finally set out to dry on raised beds, allowing airflow and even drying among all the beans. All of these steps have to be subtly altered depending on temperature, time of the harvest, rainfall and other factors. The Perez family has shown incredible consistency and attention to detail. We are incredibly honored to showcase this beautiful washed Pacamara from Finca Insul.\u003c\/p\u003e","yt_or_vim":false,"video_1":"601045965","video_2":"601046796","video_1_yt":"","video_2_yt":"","v_1_title":"","v_2_title":"","v_1_blurb":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr \/\u003e\n\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1707\/3261\/files\/Filter_Brew_Guide-Final01.pdf?v=1596676082\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eClick for General Filter Guide\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","v_2_blurb":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr \/\u003e\n\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1707\/3261\/files\/Espresso_Brew_Guide-Final01.pdf?v=1596743162\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eClick for General Espresso Guide\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","trans_onyx_price":"9.46","trans_green":"4.5","trans_green_title":null,"trans_green_blurb":"\u003cp\u003eThe subject of paying for green coffee is inherently complicated. While the amount paid is very important, the payment terms and type of contract negotiated during the purchase are also paramount. Paying $5\/lb of coffee can be a great price, but could be detrimental to a producer if the payment terms exceed that of their needs. Here we will dive into not only what was paid for the coffee, but how the coffee was purchased. There is a glossary of terms to be found below which will aid in your understanding of industry terms.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFarm Gate - This reflects what is paid to the producer of the coffee at the farm level. Oftentimes in terms of our relationship coffees, FOB is fairly close to the farm gate price, except for countries like Ethiopia and Kenya, when it is very difficult to trace back all the way to the producer.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFOB - Free on Board. This means that the seller is responsible for any overland fees that happen before the coffee is on board the ship. 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You can find more info on what it takes to import coffee from a financial aspect under the transportation blurb.\u003c\/p\u003e","trans_transportation":"0.11","trans_transportation_title":null,"trans_transportation_blurb":"\u003cp\u003eThis number represents the cost we incurred while the coffee was moved from the producing country to our roastery in Arkansas. The amount of information we supply here is correlated to the transparency grade we issue the coffee. The better the grade, the more we can break down this information.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe price listed below is the cost we incurred while importing this full container of coffee from Guatemala to our door in Arkansas. Throughout our endeavour of importing coffees directly, we have collected data to reflect what it takes to import coffees.The beginning of importing begins with the container. Most specialty coffee is imported using a 20 foot dry van container, which when full, will hold approximately 42,000 lbs of coffee. We utilize MSC for our ocean freight, and they supply the dry and empty container to METAD for stuffing. Ocean freight costs us $2,955 from port-to-port. Usually this number is quite a bit lower, but we were hit with a customs exam causing some delays and for us to incur demurrage fees at port.\u003cbr \/\u003e\nThroughout its journey, the container needs to be insured in order to avoid losses of your coffee during its cross-ocean sail. These two containers were insured by a single contract annual policy, which cost us $250 per container.\u003cbr \/\u003e\nUpon arrival, we utilize a customs agent in order to clear these quickly and efficiently. We paid P.W. Bellinghall $583 dollars per container for customs clearance.\u003cbr \/\u003e\nUpon arrival and customs clearance, we pay for drayage from the port to the warehouse, facilitated by Canal Cartage. This cost is $355 for this container. Within the warehouse, we pay DUPUY approximately $500 per container for unloading and palletizing. After the coffee is palletized, we utilize FTL shipping in order to bring domestic trucking cost down significantly. This costs us an average of .06 to .09 cents per pound from Houston.\u003c\/p\u003e","trans_relationship":"4.85","trans_relationship_title":null,"trans_relationship_blurb":"\u003cp\u003eThe following list includes many of the costs associated with producing our coffee. We have always maintained transparency as a principle but have lumped these things under the label of “production costs” without going into detail. While the following list isn’t exhaustive, hopefully, it gives you a picture of the work, expense, and investment involved in executing coffee at the level that we do. At this time we are listing our cost of production for each pound of coffee at around $4.85. There are obviously many other aspects of running a business such as shrink, mistakes, new equipment and maintenance, but this works as an arbitrary cost associated with making one box of coffee. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eFixed Costs\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr \/\u003e\nThese are costs associated with simply having a business. Things like utilities of internet, natural gas, phones, rent, business licenses, fees, etc. These things increase every year. For example, most commercial leases increase by 2% every year. We periodically look at these costs and try to reduce expenses, but work in this area are small moves of the needle as these are mostly the same and usually increase every year. In 2019, we invested in a solar energy system for our roastery. It was installed in 2020 and we are seeing a great return in terms of the monthly costs of electricity. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePackaging\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr \/\u003e\nThis is all the things that go into packaging the coffee from the roaster to your house. There’s the biodegradable bag, the recyclable box, the compostable mailer, different boxes for bulk shipping, the paper that pads the coffee, tape, and a few odds and ends. (Read about our new retail packaging \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1707\/3261\/files\/Sustainablility-Infograph-Final.pdf?v=1596482455\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\"\u003eHERE\u003c\/a\u003e). These costs are separate from the green and roasted coffee but a part of the cost of producing coffee ready to ship and consume. We want our coffee to arrive in a secure fashion, looking like it did when it left our roastery: with style and design but also keeping the environment in mind. Shipping packages inevitably have waste associated and we’re working towards sustainability at each step. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eLabor\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr \/\u003e\nWe are proud of our team and the way they are so thoroughly dedicated to excellence and to being the best at their respective roles across the industry. We work to make coffee jobs both sustainable and celebrated. We pay salaries, provide health insurance, and give regular raises. Our coffee doesn’t taste the way it does without all of our team working hard and performing at a high level. Often we have a handful of staff that get celebrated, but everyone on our team contributes and is valuable. Our roastery production crew has earned a small commission on coffees sold since 2017. Onyx is not just a brand or a design or a café, we are truly made by every person on our team.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWe all know it takes work to make anything. Our approach has more labor involved than you may think. Because we visit every \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1707\/3261\/files\/Relationship_Coffee.pdf?v=1598281554\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\"\u003eRelationship Coffee\u003c\/a\u003e producer, that means our green buying team of Jon and Dakota typically spend a total of six months traveling. We’re committed to visiting and cupping on the ground, this inevitably is an investment of time, of money, of long layovers, of encountering government coupes and protests, and forging some of the greatest friendships and seeing some of the most beautiful landscapes imaginable.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAnother place we are highly invested in labor is in our coffee quality control. Our QC manager literally cups every single batch of coffee that we roast, scores it, makes notes, gives feedback. These records can be found in \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/onyxcoffeelab.com\/pages\/find-my-coffee\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\"\u003eFind My Roast\u003c\/a\u003e. This is essentially a full-time job. This is something that we technically don’t have to do, but in chasing our goal of having the world’s best coffee we can’t know exactly how each roast measures up without cupping it. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWe have more roasters than we technically need. We roast in small batch size, meaning we don’t max out the capacity of our roasting machines. This translates into us roasting more actual batches and necessitates more time. This concept is driven by our desire for quality.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWe have a creative team that helps create all things visible, digital, and print. These folks are very talented and have really helped push the dream of Onyx to the next level. We believe that coffee can inherently be great, but having something that looks and feels good helps inform expectations, helps bring value, and tells the stories in coffee in a way that is tangible and important.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThese are a few of the jobs we feel really have more involvement than might be imagined, but throughout Onyx there are touchpoints of intentionally positioned team members to help create the best possible coffee experience. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eCoffee Roasting\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr \/\u003e\nRoasting itself creates a loss in coffee. There’s the straightforward fact that when coffee is roasted it loses between 7% and 8% of its weight, meaning that if you bought 1000lbs of a lot you end up with 920lbs of roasted coffee. We also use what’s called an \"\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/www.sovdacoffee.com\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\"\u003eoptical sorter\u003c\/a\u003e\" which sorts all of our coffee after it's roasted and kicks out 2% of all coffees. Sorting just creates an overall cleaner coffee, eliminating any outlying beans that are discolored, are quakers, etc. This totals around 10% loss of coffee before it even is bagged for retail or wholesale. We donate this rejected coffee to local food banks, non-profits, and halfway houses.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThen there’s profiling the coffee. We roast test batches before we release coffees to dial in roasting profiles, and we often make multiple tweaks. The coffee is then cupped multiple times, used to create brewing recipes and guides, and used in training. We also pull a sample of each batch of coffee for quality control. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWe are committed to shipping only the absolute best coffees to our customers, and these measures—although costly—are in place to help create trust between you and us.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eTaxes\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr \/\u003e\nWe all know what this is. We set aside and submit money every quarter for taxes along with paying all of the weekly and monthly taxes we are obligated to pay. This can be tough for a small business as there are ebbs and flows in cash flow, and taxes are often not paid in conjunction with the sales season.\u003c\/p\u003e","trans_fair_trade":"1.6","trans_fair_trade_title":null,"trans_fair_trade_blurb":"\u003cp\u003eSince coffee was first sold, producers have sought to increase or maintain the price of their product. In 1988, the first certified \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/www.fairtrade.net\/product\/coffee\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\"\u003eFair Trade\u003c\/a\u003e coffee was sold in Holland as a partnership with a cooperative in Mexico. This was a major stepping stone in coffee trading, as it promised farmers a safety net when the volatile commodity market of coffee plummeted. Fair Trade ensures that farmers will be paid a minimum price for their product, which serves mostly as a safety net when all other prices drop. As the specialty market has grown, criticism for Fair Trade has grown alongside it. Consumers and coffee professionals alike have misunderstood Fair Trade Certified coffees to be the answer to a growing coffee price crisis. Many have used these ethical labels to continue to pay coffee producers a minimum price for a product that has exploded in popularity through the years. We are careful not to minimize what Fair Trade and other certifications have accomplished through the years, viewing a set minimum price as a stepping stone to a larger conversation about how the industry treats valuable producing partners. As we avoid settling for the bare minimum, we always pay at least double Fair Trade minimums based on the quality of coffee we purchase.\u003c\/p\u003e","trans_c_market":"1.57","trans_c_market_title":null,"trans_c_market_blurb":"\u003cp\u003eIn the modern world, coffee is valued as one of the most important agricultural exports of developing nations. Most coffee in the world is produced as a ubiquitous green seed to be roasted by large roasters and sold on a shelf with little information about where it comes from and who grew it. Like other agricultural commodities, coffee is traded in futures contracts on many exchanges. This price is dictated by global economic forces such as supply and demand, which is set by the largest suppliers and the largest buyers. The price of commodity coffee has been in major decline since the collapse of the \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/International_Coffee_Organization\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eInternational Coffee Agreement\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e, and also due to forces outside the coffee industry as a whole. The minimum price that a producer has gotten for their product since the collapse of the ICA has hovered around $1.20\/ lb, but within the last few years, it is most frequently found to be under $1.00\/ lb, which many industry experts consider to be \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/caravela.coffee\/project\/a-study-on-costs-of-production-in-latin-america-white-paper\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eunder the cost of production\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e. The commodity price of coffee never dictates the prices we pay for coffee, due to the precedence that quality takes in the specialty industry. We factor in cup score, variety, process, country of origin, and other factors when drawing up our private contracts with producing partners. Choosing to list the commodity market price at the time of our purchase shows the distinct difference in markets, as we strive for a more holistic and honest approach to the way that coffee is purchased.\u003c\/p\u003e","trans_cup_score":"87","trans_cup_score_title":null,"trans_cup_score_blurb":"\u003cp\u003eAs we travel the world and taste coffees, we evaluate all the coffees we taste on a scoresheet developed by coffee professionals around the world. Through this, we can participate in and use the language of an industry-standard set of guidelines. This allows us to honestly assign a numerical score to any coffee we taste, creating the ability for a starting point in a discussion of the quality of each coffee. We list the cup score of each coffee we purchase as part of our ethos of transparency, not as an end all be all statement of drinkability. Many of us agree that we’d rather drink an 86 point coffee rather than an 88 point coffee. We list it because the cup score serves as a reference of quality, allowing producers to negotiate higher prices based on the hard work they’ve done to achieve this quality. This is the imperfect industry answer to the commodification of coffee, which can be bought and sold based on economics, rather than the nuances and sweetness in the cup…\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFor more information on coffee sensory science, check out the \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/www.coffeeinstitute.org\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eCoffee Quality Institute\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e","trans_lot_size":null,"trans_lot_size_title":null,"trans_lot_size_blurb":"\u003cp\u003eLot size is seemingly straightforward when taken at face value, but it gets more convoluted as you look closely at the vernacular of the specialty coffee industry. Terms such as micro-lot and macro-lot get awfully blurry as we buy coffee from different parts of the world. Like many other things in the coffee industry, there is not one catchall term that will tell you if your coffee is indeed a micro-lot. The size of a lot rarely informs us of the quality of that lot, which is a difficult concept to shake coming out of the early years of specialty coffee. Lot size informs us of one thing: the size of that lot. We can, however, take this time to talk about how coffee is separated at the production level, and how we make sense of it from country to country. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe first way we see coffee divided up is by region. These lots are often built up of many farms, Coops, or washing stations. This often signifies that the lot was built to reflect the flavor characteristics of the region. Colombia comes to mind when we think of regional blends, and these blends can often be very valuable to roasters and producers if transparency is upheld and fair prices are paid. We partner with friends like Pergamino Coffee to build regional lots, where within we seek to uphold transparency and quality. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe second way we see coffee represented is by a cooperative, farm, or washing station. Oftentimes this is where you begin to see 'micro-lot' sized offerings, which can often be built from several parts of each farm, or a few farms in one area. (Sounds a bit like a regional blend, doesn't it?) These lots represent an entire harvest, where individual day lots are blended to form an offering that is of a decent exportable size. This ranges from just 100-300 kg all the way up to several full containers of exportable green. One thing is to note, forming a single farm lot can often take just as much cupping and profiling as the large regional blends, due to each day or weeks pickings being separated and cupped to ensure they fall into quality standards. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe final way we see coffee represented is by day lot. This is where terroir comes into play, due to organic variations in the environment such as shade, soil type, tree age, and many other factors. Nearly any quality control program that is on a farm level will evaluate harvest this way. This allows producers to isolate parts of the farm or crop that is facing some challenges, as well as to select truly remarkable day lots to represent the pinnacle of their work. These small offerings range from just a few kilograms up to several thousand. We see these lots most often during auctions such as Best of Panama and Cup of Excellence, where they fetch high prices. Each one of those lots not only represents the hard work of each producer, but they also represent the amount of coffee that was filtered out during this quality control stage. This focus on the minuscule may seem like semantics to some, but as you zoom back out to your cup you realize just how many decisions were made before it arrived in your hands.\u003c\/p\u003e","trans_grade":"A+","trans_grade_title":null,"trans_grade_blurb":"\u003cp\u003eThese ratings do not signify the “ethical grade” of a purchased coffee, instead, they are created to show data to everyone. These ratings simply signify how much we understand what the grower of our coffees actually makes. This is not an “us” vs “them” mentality of Roasters \u0026amp; Producers against Importers \u0026amp; Exporters or Farmers vs Customers that narrative can be damaging and usually full of fallacies. All parties are needed for this beautiful industry to thrive and our position is that sharing data has no moral position. It is simply numbers and math. We’ll leave the moral high ground to others even if this data is filtered through preconceived notions.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eA+\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr \/\u003e\nThis rating signifies we have published the price and payment went directly to the producer as well as all parties involved in logistics. Money exchanged was only through Onyx and producing parties. No procurement payments or bank financing were made. Mills, Exporter, and Importer are all known and quality scores are published. Farmgate, FOB, Milling, Logistics proven. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eA \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr \/\u003e\nThis rating signifies we have published the price and payment went directly to the producer. Money exchanged was only through Onyx and producing parties. The importer was hired to move coffee in the United States. No procurement payments or bank financing were made. Mills, Exporter, and Importer are all known and quality scores are published. Farmgate, FOB, Milling, Logistics proven.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eA- \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr \/\u003e\nThis rating signifies we have purchased directly from a cooperative or association and published the price of FOB and wire to the head of a Cooperative or Farmers Association who pays members we are working with at Origin. We ask and publish what farm gate price was that is reported from farmers. Mills, Exporter, and Importer are all known and quality scores are published. FOB, Milling, Logistics proven. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eB+ \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr \/\u003e\nThis rating signifies a published price of payment that went directly to a producer but the producer also buys cherry from other neighboring farms. Verbal confirmation and published prices of Farmgate are acquired for coffees, but we only pay the producer in contact. Mills, Exporter, and Importer are all known and quality scores are published. FOB, Milling, Logistics proven.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eB \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr \/\u003e\nThis rating signifies we have published the FOB price and pay directly to Cooperative or Exporter at Origin. Farm Gate price is proprietary or lacks records of payments. Mills, Exporter, and Importer are all known and quality scores are published. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eB- \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr \/\u003e\nThis rating signifies we purchased this coffee from an Importer and visited the farm, cooperative, or exporter with the importer. We negotiate the contract with the importer representative and not the producer or cooperative. We pay directly to the importing company, Farm Gate price is provided by the importer and published. Price, Logistics, and Quality scores are published.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eC+ \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr \/\u003e\nThis rating signifies we purchased this coffee from an Importer. We pay directly to the company. FOB price was provided by the importer and is published, Farm gate price is unknown or proprietary information and unshared. Price and Quality scores are published.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eC \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr \/\u003e\nThis rating signifies we purchased this coffee from an importer. We pay directly to the company. FOB and Farmgate price is unknown or proprietary information and unshared. Price and Quality scores are published.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eF \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr \/\u003e\nThis means we pillaged the farm and stole their most precious Gesha lots only to fatten our wallets and eat at Pre Fixe restaurants on the weekend.\u003c\/p\u003e","hide_related_products":false,"related_product_1":"conspectus-ascot-midnight","related_product_2":"conspectus-tee-midnight","related_product_3":"mortal-poly-cap-navy"}