Southern Weather Blend

$ 15

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STORY

Southern Weather was the first blend we ever created, and the plan was simple. We wanted something sweet, comfortable, and approachable in a world of polarizing Specialty Coffee. Something anyone would like and would be easy to control during extraction. We sell more of this coffee than anything else, and I think it’s our commitment to keeping the flavor profile intact. Sweet caramelized sugars, round full body, and a bright, citrusy finish that leaves a clean, refreshing aftertaste. It pairs with any meal and works well with dairy and non-dairy milk. For us, Southern Weather embodies the excellent relationships between a citric acidity, balance, and wonderful, full-bodied chocolates. This is considered our house blend and we think it could be yours as well :)

BLEND APPROACH:

Our approach to creating blends is a bit different at Onyx. Instead of choosing coffees from specific countries or regions that will, in theory, intertwine well to develop complex & cohesive flavors like most, we start from the end and work our way back. This perspective means we choose to create a particular flavor profile first - deciding which acidities, sugars, and fats we want to accentuate for the coffee. Once a flavor profile has been set, in this case, a very approachable citrus zest, milk chocolate, and candied nuts for Southern Weather. We then start cupping blind through a lot of coffees to find these specific attributes. For Southern Weather, the Guatemalan we use comes from Finca La Esperanza, which gives us sweetness and has perfect caramelized sugars, which come across as chocolate and nutty notes. We look to other coffees in season that exude high citric acid content and clean finishes to add citrus notes for acidity and slight bitterness for balance. Currently, that’s our washed Ethiopia Reko.

The purpose is that once a flavor profile is created, we update the coffees that make up Southern Weather every 2-3 months. This allows us to have a year-round blend with a flavor profile of high quality while retaining our commitment to seasonal coffees. This vigorous amount of cupping and blending takes a considerable amount of time. But we really think it makes the difference and is a system we use for all our blends.

Feel excited that the coffee you are tasting is always in season, and therefore, it is cupping and tasting to its full potential. We will never compromise our commitment to high-quality coffees and blends, whether it’s a single origin release or a blend component. You will not find Onyx buying “blender” coffees to save cost or prolong a good coffee. We also always keep blends to three coffees or less and maintain ratios in the build. This way, what you extract is the flavor profile we designed.

Southern Weather has been a staple since our company’s inception, and we tend to think of it as our comfort coffee. Despite age, background, coffee experience, or brew method, this coffee always seems to please.

SUGGESTED USE:

FILTER - Kalita Wave
25g Coffee : 400g Water 205°F
~3:30 Drain Time

FILTER - Batch Brew (1:16 ratio)
250g Coffee : 1G brew
126g Coffee : 1/2 G brew
Target TDS: ~1.35

Southern Weather is our most popular coffee. Brewed by gallons (in the mornings) and single cups (in the afternoons/evenings) all across our stores. It’s an approachable blend with rich browned sugar notes and intriguing plum. But, don’t confuse it for boring. We often find ourselves sipping on Southern Weather almost every day. Built for a batch brew, SW is pretty straightforward to dial-in. We use Curtis G4 batch brewers but also have it dialed in with the same parameters on other Curtis, Bunn, Fetco, etc. If under-extracted, you will miss the rich milk chocolate and candied nut notes, with the addition of a salty palate. If over-extracted, the plum gets lost, and the finish is no longer pleasant and sweet.

Wanna know more about how we brew it? Then visit our brew methods page cause "this is how we brew it" (think Montell Jordan when reading that last part).

ESPRESSO - Modbar EP
Brew Temp: 198°F, Line Pressure: ~3.5 bars, Max Pressure: 9 bars,
Pressure Profile: 0 sec to 4 sec - line pressure, from 4 sec till done - 9 bars
19.0g in : ~ 40g out @ ~25 seconds

Southern Weather is our house blend coffee traditionally served as drip. However, we love to pull a tasty espresso with this also! Plenty of sugar browning happens with this blend so expect candied nuts, milk chocolate, and warm plum to shine through the espresso. Those rich browned sugar notes come through milk nicely as well. If you’re considering blends, it lands between Monarch and Geometry.

TRANSPARENCY:

Ethiopia Bensa #180 G2

This coffee was purchased by our friends at Catalyst Trade. Each year we buy a good amount of very nice Ethiopian offerings from them. This coffee came to us by chance, as they cupped it and thought it'd work for us. We paid $4.65 ex-warehouse to Catalyst, purchasing fifty 60kg bags. We cupped this coffee at an 87.

- The Coffee Commodity purchase price was $1.04/lb when we purchased this coffee.

- The Fair Trade Coffee minimum price was $1.60/lb when we purchased this coffee.

Colombia Agua Blanca #2

This coffee came to us through Red Fox Coffee Merchants. Aleco is an extremely talented cupper and works through a great network in Colombia. We purchased 15, 70-Kilo bags of this coffee for $3.65/lb, and cupped this at an 87 on an SCAA sheet. We purchased this on a spot contract along with a few other offers.

- The Coffee Commodity purchase price was $.97/lb when we purchased this coffee.

- The Fair Trade Coffee minimum price was $1.60/lb when we purchased this coffee.

Colombia Familia Chuchumbre

This is another coffee that came to us through Red Fox Coffee Merchants. Aleco is an extremely talented cupper and works through a great network in Colombia. We purchased 15, 70-Kilo bags of this coffee for $3.65/lb, and cupped this at an 86 on an SCAA sheet. We purchased this on a spot contract.

- The Coffee Commodity purchase price was $.97/lb when we purchased this coffee.

- The Fair Trade Coffee minimum price was $1.60/lb when we purchased this coffee.

* We as a company believe transparency is unbelievably important. However, we decided only to list what is shown here because we don’t know where to stop. Do we list the amount of coffee lost in roasting due to moisture loss? Should we list our roaster Mark's salary? The warehouse rent? The utilities? The point of listing things above 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. If you have concerns feel free to email us and I’ll write you back when I’m available.

- Jon

RELATIONSHIP COFFEE

Relationship Coffee is an initiative we, at Onyx, have purposely created to describe our sourcing and buying practices and how we document them. Certifications like Direct Trade, Fair Trade, and others have impacted the coffee communities in mostly positive ways but also in some negative ways. We find that blanket terms and applying them to a multitude of business models no longer describes what we do.

In reality, every company is different, and we wanted to step out from the mold and create a new set of standards that exceeds in every department from quality to transparency to pricing. The growers, exporters, importers, associations, cooperatives, and other entities are always a set of relationships. To be honest, many are our friends as much as they are our producers and partners. We share information, family news, meals, housing, many faiths, and argue politics. Oh, and we love it. Relationship Coffee for Onyx is the mark of an honest exchange ethos that permeates our company, and we hope it encourages the growth of specialty coffee for the future.

GOALS

We visited the farm or cupping lab and listened to the producer/agronomist or head cooperative/association to ascertain better knowledge about the culture and practices.
We cupped the coffee, and it scored to our industry-high standards.
We do not buy futures or multiple harvests to ensure that what we cupped for that year is what we serve.
We do not ask for exclusivity from producers, binding their options.
We pay what the coffee is worth. This always is at least double Fair Trade minimum due to the quality we buy, and many times is three to ten times the amount.
We do not finance any coffee. Cash flow is just as important as the final price. Coffee is paid in full upon delivery, and we pay a percentage up front upon contracting.
We are completely transparent from price to logistics to cupping score, to who we work with buying and shipping coffee.
We work to set premiums after a contracted price to incentivize quality and community building. This can be .10¢ - .25¢ extra per pound or community projects such as school supplies in the growing village, sports jerseys, vented chimneys for kitchen fires, etc.