Onyx Coffee Lab

Overview

Founded in May 2012 by husband-and-wife Jon and Andrea Allen — two former Arsaga's baristas from Northwest Arkansas — Onyx Coffee Lab has become arguably the most-awarded specialty coffee brand in America. Operating from a 30,000-square-foot Rogers headquarters in a 101-year-old red brick building, Onyx supplies roughly 600 wholesale cafes, sells around 1,200 bags of coffee daily, and was named the #1 coffee shop in North America and #2 in the world by The World's 100 Best Coffee Shops in 2025.

Known for

• Mantra: 'Never Settle for Good Enough'
• Per-coffee price transparency: every offering shows what was paid, what it scored, and from whom
• Pays roughly 3x fair trade rates for green coffee
• Solar-powered roastery, recycled compostable packaging
• Multiple US Barista, Brewers Cup, and Roaster Championships across 2017-2022
• Sister brand Terroir by Onyx (chocolate) and Doyenne (women-produced coffees concept)
• Robot barista at Northwest Arkansas National Airport

Why it matters

Onyx is the case study for how a specialty roaster in a secondary market can punch dramatically above its weight class — a non-investor, founder-owned company that built its reputation on consistent product, training, education, and aggressively transparent sourcing economics, then rode that into one of the most decorated competition records in US specialty coffee.

Production

head roaster

Mark Michaelson (former; 2017 US Roaster Champion)

roastery location

Rogers, Arkansas (30,000 sq ft HQ in a 101-year-old red brick building)

Café

This roaster operates a café.

Recognitions

• World's 100 Best Coffee Shops — #1 North America, #2 World (2025)
• US Roaster Championship 1st (2017, Mark Michaelson)
• US Brewers Cup 1st (2020, Elika Liftee)
• US Barista Championship 1st (2020, Andrea Allen)
• US Barista Championship 1st (2022, Morgan Eckroth)
• World Barista Championship 2nd (2022, Morgan Eckroth)
• US Brewers Cup 1st (2022, Elika Liftee)
• Sprudgie Notable Roaster

Sources

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onyx_Coffee_Lab
• https://onyxcoffeelab.com/pages/our-story
• https://talkbusiness.net/2022/07/onyx-coffee-lab-turns-10-this-year/
• https://talkbusiness.net/2025/04/onyx-coffee-lab/
• https://arktimes.com/eat-arkansas/2025/06/13/caffeine-cathedral-the-perfectionists-at-onyx-are-growing-their-coffee-empire-with-chocolate
• https://www.ediblememphis.com/a-conversation-with-andrea-and-jon-allen/