Fresh Cup Magazine, providing specialty coffee and tea professionals with unique insight into the trends, ideas, products and people that shape their world.
Issue link: http://freshcup.epubxp.com/i/232179
CAFÉ CROSSROADS Q: continued from page 24 What is the third-wave scene like in Northwest Arkansas? A ndrea Allen: Third wave is new to our area. There are a lot of coffee shops and some roasters around town, but they're a little more traditional-style. We're probably one of the first third-wave shops in the area as far as thinking about modern roasting and manual brewing. It's been fun to being doing it here, and all of our customers have been really interested in what we're doing and how it's different. In that way, our public cuppings have been really fun, informative and educational for our customers. JA: If you're looking at the population here, there's still a lot of room for growth. Northwest Arkansas is kind of an interesting area because three of the largest companies in the world are stationed in this small town [Walmart, Tyson and J.B. Hunt Transport Services], so you have a strange mix of big urban money and a hippie-farm style. People are pretty open-minded, and there's enough culture to support people giving things a shot that might be slightly more expensive or a little more refined. Q: What is the next step for Onyx? AA: In the next year or so, we would like to find a bigger multi-use space for our roasting and production. We're kind of outgrowing our space at our Springdale store, so we're looking for a location that would house the roaster and would have more room for green bean storage and more training. I'm active in the Barista Guild of America, so I'm really interested in trying to bring some of the SCAA education to our area because I think there's a lot of interest in those organizations around here. Right now to go take a class is just really expensive because the camps and the expos are on the coast for the most part. We're hoping [the roastery] can eventually serve as a training lab. JA: Q: We're trying to get a lot of our baristas involved in [Barista Guild], but when you're centrally located its extremely difficult to be super involved. But we were, and it helped influence what our business is today. It sounds like you're dedicated to strengthening specialty coffee throughout the region, not just at Onyx. AA: I personally believe that if all the shops in our area were to have access to more education and higher-quality beans, it actually would benefit everyone. Because more education for the public would happen as far as, "… why does this coffee cost $4.50 when I can get coffee for $1 at a gas station?" If everybody were raising their standards, it would help all the shops do better. JA: I think that's really starting to hit the Midwest, and we're hoping it will have a big outpouring in Arkansas … the Kansas City [Mo.] coffee scene becoming quite a bit bigger has helped influence or at least make it acceptable for other surrounding areas to join that scene, whether it's going back and forth to barista competitions or latte art throwdowns. We're about to host our second throwdown, and it's been great to see all the cafés in the area come out and really just support the industry as a whole. All of that reflects on the producer at the end of the day—you know, why maybe the cost here is a little higher. That chain of sourcing starts to make sense in a heartbeat when you see how many hands are involved in the coffee to begin with. 26 Fresh Cup Magazine | freshcup.com