Onyx Coffee Lab Guatemala El Limonar Martinez

It’s 2017! It seemed only fitting to close out 2016 with Onyx Coffee Lab and open 2017 with the last of their coffees I have from their current winter selections. This morning I’m tasting a honey processed Guatemalan that is sure to be tasty, so check the links out below and let’s drink (coffee)!

Onyx Coffee Lab

Buy this coffee directly for $16.50/12oz

Other currently available coffees I’ve reviewed: Kenya Othaya Cooperative, Ethiopia Hambela Buku (washed), Ethiopia Hambela Buku (natural), El Salvador Finca Santa Rosa (washed)


ONYX COFFEE LAB GUATEMALA EL LIMONAR MARTINEZ

Today’s coffee is from my awesome friends in Arkansas, Onyx Coffee Lab. This coffee is a honey process selection from El Limonar, the farm of Jose Bernabe Martinez. El Limonar, meaning “the lemon grove,” is located in the Huehuetenango region of Guatemala, where much of that country’s best coffee is grown. This is a Caturra and Bourbon mix grown around 1800masl. This coffee was one of the best Onyx found on their last sourcing trip to Guatemala and they are really excited about it. They say it works for batch brewing, filter, espresso, pretty much anything!

I used my standard 1:16 ratio of 28g of coffee to 450g of water in a notNeutral Gino pourover with Kalita 185 filters. This made some really nice, fruity cups. When it comes to Guatemalan coffee I like the really sweet “sugar bombs” the best. This one turned out not only to be super sweet, but interestingly fruited, as well. Onyx Coffee Lab gives us cup notes of, “peach, fresh florals, black tea, sweet cream, raspberry.” My first sip after brewing immediately brought “cherry pie” to the forefront of my mind.

As the cup cooled and the coffee opened up some I got tons of raspberry along with a peach note and some apricot, too (think dried apricots… both sweet but also a little zippy with some acidity). There are hints of lemon in the cup and a tea note that is especially prevalent, for me, in the finish, which is quite dry and reminds me of the physical feel of how tea often finishes quite dry on the tongue. While I wasn’t getting any floral notes in the aroma, they were coming through loud and clear in the flavor, especially if I held the coffee in my mouth for a few seconds before swallowing. This adds some nice complexity to the cup.

This is a really nice cup. What a great start to 2017! There’s quite a lot of nuance and complexity to this coffee, but at the same time it’s super delicious, inviting, and easy-drinking. As if I needed another reason to like Onyx Coffee Lab even more, but nonetheless, here it is! This one is killer!