Onyx Coffee Lab El Salvador Finca Santa Rosa (washed)

We made it, everybody! 2017 is right around the corner and I’m finishing off the year with an El Salvadoran coffee from my good friends at Onyx Coffee Lab in Arkansas! Thank you so much for reading KC Coffee Geek, commenting, sharing, subscribing and checking in on Instagram and Twitter, too! Happy New Year, thank you for the support and let’s make 2017 the best year yet!

Onyx Coffee Lab

Purchase this coffee directly for $18/12oz


ONYX COFFEE LAB EL SALVADOR FINCA SANTA ROSA

Onyx Coffee Lab has been working with Jorge Raul Rivera’s Finca Santa Rosa in El Salvador for the past year, for sure, if not longer. I reviewed one of Rivera’s coffees that Onyx roasted in January 2016, though that was a honey process. Just a couple days ago I posted another of Onyx/FSR’s coffee’s, a natural Pacamara nanolot that was already sold out. Today’s coffee is also a Pacamara variety (those huge beans get me every time!) grown at 1700masl at Finca Santa Rosa, but this one is a washed selection, meaning the cherry and pulp are completely removed before the coffee is laid out to dry. Onyx will be releasing more selections from Finca Santa Rosa throughout the winter, so keep your eyes peeled because these are some nice coffees!

Onyx tell us that this coffee is, “crisp and clean while offering great lemon acidity and cocoa-like sweetness.” Their cup notes read, “green apple, cocoa & pastry, pecan, lemon.” :drool:

I used my usual 1:16 ratio of 28g of coffee to 450g of water in a notNeutral Gino pourover with Kalita 185 filters. My grinder for pourovers is a Handground and I’m using a 3.5 with pretty good successs in the Gino, which is a Kalita Wave-style, 3-hole, flat-bottom brewer.

This is a really nice cup. The lemon acidity is really prevalent and very “clean” and, well lemony (as opposed to “lemon candy” or “lemon-lime” or “kinda lemony”). Don’t be frightened, however, because that lemon acidity is bright but not harsh or puckering. It’s really beautiful in this cup. The lemon brightness hits right off the bat and then the sip follows right up with a sweet, nutty flavor. Pecan pie may be a good descriptor here. I think it would be somewhat cloying without that nice, bright lemon to balance it out, so they play perfectly off one another. With a lot of retronasal technique (*nerd corner… basically lightly swishing the coffee around in my mouth and then “puffing” air out my nose… not something I would ever do with people around, but a good way to find nuances in food and bev) I picked up some tobacco-like notes, too, but really this was pecan pie with lemon splashed onto it and I loved this coffee!

This is a short review, not because I didn’t enjoy this selection (LOVED IT!), but because it’s pretty straightforward. This is a beautiful coffee and would be a good morning starter or post-lunch pick-me-up and, as always, I’m that much more impressed with the buyers and roasters at Onyx Coffee Lab! Go Arkansas!