Serving People Serving Coffee Since 2005
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23 www.baristamagazine.com PHOTOS COURTESY OF ONYX COFFEE LAB Jon Allen, co-owner of Onyx Coff ee Lab, says Onyx was inspired to add a transparency section to their website because of his own experience of having a diffi cult time fi nding information about coff ees and their perceived value when he was starting in coff ee. that publishing their prices allowed them to associate a tangible dollar amount with their efforts. Jon says his desire to share this information came from his own learning experience in coffee, where he felt pricing information indicating coffee's value was hard to come by. "Over the past decade I have read everything I could fi nd, and asked a million questions to importers, roasters, and other green buyers," he says. "It turns out that no one really shares anything about buying green coffee, and more importantly, many people have really no idea what something was worth." Jon says that after publishing the transparency information online, Onyx's website has received a large increase in traffic. He's also received a high volume of emails from roasters and importers expressing their surprise and interest at the prices Onyx has paid. "It felt to me as if everyone—or at least companies of our size— was really curious about what coffees were really costing other roasters," he says. Onyx will be able to dive deeper into transparency through an upcoming research project: The roaster is partnering with the Uni- versity of Arkansas on a two-year study working with coffee growers in Colombia. One of the central questions the study will explore, Jon says, is: "Does knowing the price of coffee sold throughout the chain from start to fi nish empower producers and affect how they produce and how they discuss pricing?" While the framework for the study is still being determined, Jon says the research will attempt to shed light on whether the quality standards sought by roasters are in fact ben- efi ting the entire supply chain. "We're trying to see if specialty really makes sense for everyone," he says. Onyx and Kickapoo are certainly not the only coffee-roasting companies seeking to push the boundaries of transparency in coffee pricing, but they're among the most vocal, making them pioneers in the effort. Will their efforts inspire change in our industry, and what will be the results and reverberations of their endeavors in the near future? We at Barista Magazine intend to track it for you, so stay tuned. —Chris Ryan