Is a bag that can't close itself even a problem? Just buy some binder clips. How are you closing any other bagged food items you buy?

I don't buy Onyx often but I appreciate that I can actually recycle part of their packaging. My local resource recovery org won't take poly bags of any kind, and I have no local commercial composting facilities for the plant-derived materials. Kraft paper bags are often still layered with plastic on the inside so they can't be recycled or composted at home. Almost every bag of coffee I buy goes into the garbage when finished, pure waste with no chance of recycling. Resealable bags are just a few extra grams of plastic in a landfill.

IIRC Onyx bags are poly lined with a foil layer as well. Most are. Any bags that are heat sealed need a poly layer as far as I know. As for resealing, there are plenty of bag options for resealing such as the zip box pouches. When spending $20+ per 10oz, I'd want it to stay as fresh as possible. I do believe Onyx nitro flushes so that is great if one won't get to them for a bit after delivery.

Even better than recycling is not having anything to recycle or throw away in the first place. I think a great middle ground would be the box outer layer as a gift option. A friend buys their 2lb bags to not get the box. Also having the outer boxes forces them to use heavy indestructo mailer boxes so the box inside the box doesn't get crinkled in shipping. Having that aesthetic takes a lot of packaging for someone to go "oh that's cool" before they throw it in the trash. We should remember recycling saves trees but not energy.

Jake_G wrote:
For me, getting a rotating roaster subscription was the key for widening my horizons and learning what I do and don't like. I

This is a really cool idea, and something I definitely want to try now. I only moved to Denver recently, and it's been fun trying out all the local roasters, but I totally agree that a lot of local roasters aren't exactly crushing it. Of the eight or so local roasters I've tried so far, maybe two seem to really know what they're doing, i.e. are super transparent about where they source their beans, knowledgeable about how they were processed, bring something unique to the table, and roast them in a way that gets the most out of it. Another two are decent and seem to roast well, but don't necessarily have the most interesting offerings. And the rest are not bad necessarily, but just exceedingly average.

Of course all of this is from a small sample size of me chatting with the baristas and trying a couple bags of coffee at each place, but I'm also quite spoiled in that there are so many different roasters to try all within a 30 minute drive. Where I used to live, there were maybe 4 roasters nearby, and all of them were imperfect in one way or another.

And just from a personal perspective, I enjoy the experience of buying local and chatting with the baristas to learn about how they operate and get recommendations. I'll settle for coffee that's very good but not necessarily exceptional if I'm also getting good human experience with it.

But now I think I'll try a few more places like Onyx and the other roasters you mentioned to gain that added perspective!

msz wrote: I'll settle for coffee that's very good but not necessarily exceptional if I'm also getting good human experience with it.

I'm definitely not into geeking out about coffee like most everyone here but I'd gladly give up talking to someone for exceptional coffee LOL!

I strongly dislike Onyx's packaging choices and it guides my purchases from them.

This thread has inspired me to drive from Kansas City to Arkansas to buy some Onyx coffee.

Whoah... Not sure I would be willing to drive several hours for a specific roaster's coffee. That's some commitment.

I dislike Onyx packaging. I greatly prefer what they had before. Seems like they are spending more money on stupid non-functional packaging. This fancy looking box has great potential to get the corners mashed in when they mail it to you. When that happens, it just looks awful. Inside of the box is the bag with coffee but what's terrible is that you can't even reseal it. Sure, you can fold it, but it does not (and it is not), air-tight. You can get a bag clip or something, but most likely the bag won't sit flush in the box anymore because the clips you have aren't the right size. I've stopped buying from them long ago after their prices went up, coffee quantity went down, roast quality went down, but oh hey, the packaging is nicer but more inconvenient.

flyingtoaster wrote:This thread has inspired me to drive from Kansas City to Arkansas to buy some Onyx coffee.

That's one way to avoid having to recycle the shipping box. And as a bonus you probably won't have to pay the sneaky service fee!


I'd never heard of Onyx before. They say that all PR is good PR, but I'm not so sure.

imp96 wrote:You are buying coffee that was grown, processed, shipped across the world, roasted, packaged, shipped across the country. The extra piece of paper packaging is the least you should worry about. They are not the only place that does this either.

Not a rant!!!!!

Perfection is the enemy of progress.

You are right that the planet would be better off if we all stopped drinking coffee and yet here I am drinking coffee. Right now. Just took a sip between sentences. That doesn't stop me from trying to incrementally lessen my negative impact on the planet when the opportunity arises. I hope you decide to do the same. If you realized that your kid (assuming you have any) wasn't likely to get into Harvard or the elite school of your choice, would you just not bother caring about their education? Or, maybe more relevant, if you knew you couldn't brew World Barista Champ level coffee, would you just get a Keurig and be done with it? I'm sure you get my point and you may still not care about the environment...that's up to you.

For those that do care...I recently learned that the Reduce>Re-Use>Recycle slogan is actually in order of effectiveness. So remember, recycle is the least effective tool in that list. Some call it downcycling since it involves energy use as well as waste.


Again, this was not a rant