Onyx Coffee Review
About Onyx Coffee
Onyx Coffee roasts inspired blends in its sustainable, solar-powered facility. Offering specialty coffees from around the world, you’ll get unique flavor profiles served up in a subscription or single-bag buys.
The brand’s team is made up of several US coffee competition champions, sharing numerous brewing awards including 1st Place in the 2020 US Brewers Championship. Onyx Coffee has also won titles such as the 2016 Coffee Bar of Year in Imbibe Magazine and was a 2015 and 2016 Good Food Award winner.
Onyx’s Instagram page has a hefty following of 147k, where its rows of artsy, moody photos are as alluring as its tasty brews.
Ahead, this Onyx Coffee review will tell you everything you need to know about the brand and its coffees, cover customer feedback, information on deals, and more, to help you decide if it’s worth all the buzz.
Overview of Onyx Coffee
The way Onyx crafts its blends starts with a vision, but more so, a taste. Its team chooses a flavor profile (such as milk chocolate, plums, candied walnuts) they want to create, then cup blindly to find those notes in a span of different brews. They combine the coffees to match the flavor they set out to make.
But Onyx coffees don’t stop there. Since the brand honors eco-friendly practices, it changes the origin of the beans found in each blend every 2-3 months to source seasonably.
That means you’ll always be sipping fresh seasonal beans sourced from only the best farms—they don’t use “filler” coffee to reduce costs, and because of that, they pay a little more for them.
The brand, established in 2012 by Jon and Andrea Allen, is led by the phrase “never settle for good enough.” You’ll find this matra on its apparel and drinkware, serving a daily reminder to push boundaries and only choose the best—because you deserve it.
Onyx Coffee is based in Arkansas, where it has four coffee shops around the state. Prioritizing customer service as much as quality brews, these shops are said to be some of the best in the country simply for the way their staff treats patrons.
Up next, this Onyx Coffee review will give you a rundown of the brand’s pros and cons. After that, we’ll get into some delicious details about its coffees.
Pros
- Varied range of blends and single-origin coffees
- Solar-powered and infra-red roasting process
- Compostable packaging
- Transparent about practices
- Subscribe to save 5%
- Ships around the world
Cons
- Pricier than other brands
The company makes coffee, but you’ll also find the latest brewing equipment, expressive drinkware, and comfy basics like graphic tees and hats on its site. In the next section of this Onyx Coffee review, we’ll go over a few of the brand’s coffees and provide some details on how its subscription plan works.
Onyx Coffee Review
Onyx Coffee roasts a range of pleasing blends from Ethiopia, Colombia, Costa Rica, and Kenya. It carries some single-origin coffees as well—spanning out from light and nippy brews like Happy Sips to pre-order-only treasures like Mauricio Shattah Mokka.
Ahead, this Onyx Coffee review will take you on a journey through the brand’s top-selling roasts hailing from the corners of shady farms and mountaintop fields. All coffees are packaged in 4 oz, 10 oz, 2 lb, and 5 lbs bags.
Onyx Coffee Southern Weather Review
Onyx Coffee Southern Weather is a balanced brew that takes you through sunny fields of citrus to the depths of creamy milk chocolate. Notes of caramelized walnuts hum through this blend, producing a juicy, smooth mouthfeel that mixes well with creamy milk.
Southern Weather is a blend of coffees from Colombia and Ethiopia, and it’s actually the first one the brand ever made. Pick up this refreshing, versatile blend for $10-$90.
Onyx Coffee Geometry Review
A tasty espresso blend, Onyx Coffee Geometry is a mix of washed beans from Ethiopia and Colombia that have a light but complex taste.
Like golden honey drizzled over juicy berries served with a cup of fine Earl Grey tea with a squeeze of sugared lemon, this blend is an easy brew for morning time. But, it also pairs well with afternoon treats like shortbread and lemon tarts.
Enlighten your taste buds with a bag of Geometry for $10-$96.
Onyx Coffee Ethiopia Beriti Review
Explore sun-drenched strawberries and floral notes of hibiscus glazed with sugary guarapo while sipping the Onyx Coffee Ethiopia Beriti blend. Balanced with the rich acidity of cocoa, this coffee has an uplifting sweetness and intriguing depth.
The Ethiopia Beriti comes from Metad, a coffee farm in East Africa. Savor this heirloom blend whenever the mood strikes for something classy. Get a bag for $10-$136.
Onyx Coffee Costa Rica Review
Onyx Coffee Costa Rica coffee blends beans from Catuai and Caturra regions from a farm called Las Lajas, capturing the tropical essence of the island itself. Juicy papaya mingles with sweet vanilla and amber honey to create a smooth, balanced coffee with lingering notes of raspberry.
Washed then dried on patios and raised beds, this process produces a superior bean that roasts and pours to perfection. Sit back and enjoy this excellent brew with a bag for $10-$144.
Onyx Coffee Subscription Review
You can’t seem to get enough of coffee, but more specifically, Onyx Coffee. Subscribing not only gets your favorite beans delivered to your door every week, two weeks, or month, but you’ll also get 5% off your order.
For subscriptions, you can choose from 10 oz, 2 lb, or 5 lb bags of coffee from the brand’s favorites collection, but you can also choose your own blend if you don’t see it on the list.
Onyx has something called Roaster’s Choice that will send you a new type of coffee for each shipment. Each selection is picked by one of the brand’s master roasters.
Subscribing is done in three steps:
- Pick your coffee
- Specify how frequently you’d like to get it
- Receive it in the mail and start brewing
Prices vary based on coffee type and size.
Who Is Onyx Coffee For?
Onyx Coffee isn’t your average brew, so it’s for those who like a little more personality behind their morning cup. We say personality for a few reasons, from the packaging to the taste of the coffee itself to the team responsible for roasting the beans.
Onyx Coffee is an experience. It costs more than the average bag, but the brand also pays farmers a lot more than the average coffee company. Since it offers a subscription, it’s a great choice for anyone who wants to take the hassle out of weekly trips to the shop too.
Is Onyx Coffee Sustainable?
That would be a big YES. Onyx Coffee is sustainable in all corners of its business, from sourcing to roasting to mailing. Its Roastery is completely carbon neutral, using solar power and infrared heat for production and roasting.
After your beans are toasty and ready to go, they’re poured into compostable mailers, which you can actually break down at home—no need to send them back. There is absolutely no trash involved in the brand’s products, all of it is either consumed or composted.
Comparison: Onyx Coffee vs. Driftaway Coffee
Considering that coffee is one of the world’s most traded resources, sustainable production and ethical sourcing are a must. But even though we all want to sip with a clean conscience, we also want our coffee to taste out of this world.
In this section of our Onyx Coffee review, we’ll do a side-by-side comparison between our featured brand and Driftaway Coffee to see if one comes out on top.
Like Onyx, Driftaway Coffee is transparent about its prices, sourcing, and sustainability practices, and it’s a carbon-neutral company. So far, these two brands are on par in regards to helping the world out.
How about the coffee? Well, both offer a range of roasts, but Driftaway is all about single-origin coffee, whereas Onyx blends beans from multiple sources for a more complex and balanced taste—but it does have some single-origin roasts too.
Both companies have subscriptions, and how they work is pretty similar, but Driftaway’s first step is a little different. With them, you’ll receive a tasting box so that you know what you like.
From there, you can see your preferences and receive coffees similar to the one you liked best. You can always skip the explorer kit, but it’s recommended if you’re a first-timer.
Driftaway bags its coffee in 8 oz, 12 oz, 1 lb, and 2 lb bags and you can set your shipments to arrive weekly, biweekly, or monthly. A for prices, since Onyx sells in 4 oz and 10 oz bags for its smaller sizes, we’ll compare the 2 lb bag for reference.
- Driftaway Coffee 2 lbs $36 with free shipping
- Onyx Coffee 2 lbs $60 with free shipping
Onyx Coffee is obviously more expensive. But that may be because it pays its farmers 3-4x the amount other Fair Trade coffee brands do. And we can actually see in both of the brand’s information that Driftaway pays $3.37/lb whereas Onyx pays over $8. So, workers are paid more, meaning you pay more.
Does one coffee stand out from the crowd? Check out the next section of this Onyx Coffee review to find out. If you want to learn more about Driftaway, then you can check them out in our separate Driftaway Coffee Review.
Onyx Coffee Reviews: What Do Customers Think?
It’s just coffee, right? Well, it is, but also, the perfect cup of Joe has transformative power. All you hardcore coffee fans out there know what we’re talking about. So far, Onyx Coffee sounds like it might fit that bill, but to be sure, we need a little help from those who have tried it.
In this section of our Onyx Coffee review, we’ll show you our findings after a thorough web search for helpful reviews that shed some light on what the brand’s coffees are really like.
To start things off, we checked out the brand’s Facebook page to pick up the general vibe. With an overall rating of 4.7/5 stars from 403 customers, Onyx looks like it’s a treasured gem in Arkansas, and subscribers can’t seem to get enough.
One Onyx Coffee review read, “Onyx has amazing coffee options. I have been part of the subscription for a few months now and the coffee and customer service quality is excellent!” Meanwhile, others talk about the amazing taste of the brand’s coffee, saying it’s “one of the best” they’ve ever experienced.
So far, the brand sounds like it’s living up to the hype, but to find out more about the taste of its coffee, we headed to an Onyx Coffee review on Seattle Coffee Gear for its Southern Weather roast.
The site awarded the brand 4.7/5 stars and showed 7 buyer comments. One read, “Best blend I’ve ever had. Wonderful flavor, mouthfeel, and aftertaste. A very chuggable cup of coffee. This is a coffee I could drink every single day.” Others say it has a caramel-like flavor that’s consistent through batches.
Southern Weather sounds like the ideal cup of coffee, and it’s great to know that the flavor is consistent—usually an issue for small roasters.
Finally, we turned to Amazon to see how what its shoppers around the world thought of the brand and its Lab Roaster Sample Box. Given a 4.7/5 star score from 57 buyers, the rating for the sample box is broken down like this:
- 5 stars: 79%
- 4 stars: 12%
- 3 stars: 6%
- 2 stars: 3%
- 1 star: 0%
The comments section is filled with happy reviews about the taste of the coffee selection, some saying it’s the only coffee they can drink black as it’s simply that good, and is “the best coffee I have ever brewed at home.”
One buyer wrote, “it’s indescribable how great this coffee is,” and that seems to be the consensus with a lot of users who are blown away by the difference Onyx makes.
From all the review sources we found, which all interestingly have matching ratings of 4.7/5 stars, Onyx Coffee is truly next level. The taste, smoothness, and balance of each brew are impressive and keep customers coming back for more.
Is Onyx Coffee Worth It?
Though some can settle for a crappy cup of cheap whatever, for others, taste matters, and they’re willing to pay a little more for something they truly enjoy.
To say if the brand’s coffee is worth it hinges on whether you care about what you’re sipping. Since you’re here reading this Onyx Coffee review and not popping a McDonald’s breakfast roast into your Keurig, we’re going to assume you care about what’s in your cup.
And you most likely don’t just care about the taste, but where it comes from too, as well as how it’s produced. When it comes to making coffee, it looks like Onyx can do no wrong. Choosing sustainable roasting methods, Fair Trade sourcing, and compostable packaging, the brand is a homerun for even the pickiest of coffee connoisseurs.
Onyx Coffee Promotions & Discounts
Customers have said Onyx coffee is like anything they’ve ever experienced. With that in mind, shelling out a few extra bucks seems totally worth it, and since they pay the farms they source from 3-4x as much as Fair Trade rules specify, the price is warranted.
With that said, they still want to give customers perks, so when you spend over $40, your order is shipped for free. As a subscriber, you’ll save 5% and the frustration of going to the store every week.
Where to Buy Onyx Coffee
If you’re interested in subscribing and the brand’s full coffee selection, the best place to buy is right from OnyxCoffee.com or one of its Arkansas cafes. If you’re dead-set on Amazon, you can find a few roasts on there too.
FAQ
Who owns Onyx Coffee?
Andrea and Jon Allen co-own Onyx, alongside a few other developers that have their hands in the pie.
Where is Onyx Coffee based?
Onyx’s headquarters and roasting facility is located in Rogers, Arkansas.
Where are Onyx Coffee cafes located?
Across Arkansas, in Fayetteville, Bentonville, and Rogers.
Is Onyx Coffee Fair Trade?
Onyx Coffee follows all Fair Trade guidelines to a T, and they pay 3-4 times more than what’s specified under Fair Trade requirements. But, they don’t have the official certification.
What is the best way to store my coffee?
Once you pop open your fresh bag of beans, they’ll stay good for 30 days. For the 10 oz roasts, the bags come packaged in a box that’s as tight as a coffee container would be. When you open the bag, just roll down the top and pack it back in the box.
For 2 lb and 5 lb bags, simply rolling down the top and clipping it shut will keep it fresh, but the brand recommends storing the bags in an airtight container for the freshest of beans possible.
What is Onyx Coffee’s Shipping Policy?
Onyx Coffee ships out within 24 hours from the time you place it online. If you’re a subscriber, your coffee will be sent out on a Tuesday. Shipping is free for orders over $40.
What is Onyx Coffee’s Return Policy?
Since Onyx deals with coffee, a perishable product, its roasts are non-refundable. If you purchased a non-perishable product though, like apparel or equipment, you can send them back for a full refund in 30 days as long as they haven’t been used.
Have a subscription but need to break it off? You can cancel your subscription at any time by following these steps:
- Head to OnyxCoffee.com
- Click on Account Management
- Log in
- Choose ‘Manage Subscription’
- Click ‘View Details’ – it’s right under your subscription
- Select ‘Cancel Subscription’
- Let them know why
How to Contact Onyx Coffee
If you need any other information that this Onyx Coffee review didn’t include, the brand is always happy to answer questions. Reach out to its team via:
- Email: info@onyxcoffeelab.com
- Phone: (479)899-6750
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