The Coffee
The Monclaire Guide
The Coffee
The Designation
Onyx Coffee Lab — Standard Subscription $22–$26 / bag | Ships every 1–4 weeks
Bentonville, Arkansas. Founded 2012. Ranked as high as first on global roaster rankings. Multiple US Barista Championship finalists on staff.
Roast dates printed on every bag, measured in days. Producer name, farm, altitude, varietal, processing method, price paid per pound—on the label, not buried in a report. Rotating single origins selected for quality and seasonality. Shipped at peak freshness.
The subscription that lets her stop looking. (For the full investigation—freshness mechanics, sourcing opacity, the vocabulary designed to obscure—see The Coffee · A Dossier.)
Designated.
Did Not Pass
Several subscriptions printed expiration dates instead of roast dates. Others obscured sourcing behind country names without producer information. In some cases, credibility rested on marketing language rather than external validation. In others, corporate parentage introduced questions the product alone couldn't answer.
These qualities do not meet the standard applied here. (The full account appears in The Coffee · A Dossier; the private-life perspective is introduced in The Coffee · An Edit.)
Twenty-three roasters examined. One admitted.
Roaster referenced:
Modern Monclaire maintains no commercial relationships with any roaster, farm, or subscription service. This publication accepts no advertising, affiliate revenue, or sponsored content.
(Continue the object set: The Towel · The Monclaire Guide · The Candle · The Monclaire Guide · The Scent · The Monclaire Guide · The Coat · The Monclaire Guide.)
RELATED READING
FROM the edit
FROM the dossiers
The Scent · A Dossier
The Carafe · A Dossier
The Watch · A Dossier
