For twenty years, when you received a bag from Onyx, you never had to ask where it came from. Guatemala, probably Huehuetenango. The jute held seeds from the mountains where my grandfather planted roots seventy years ago, the place where we learned everything we know about what great coffee requires: patience, devotion, and solid relationships with the people who make it possible.
That’s still true today.
But the market we operate in today looks different than it did even just a few years ago. Financing has tightened across the industry. Costs are unpredictable. Climate volatility is compressing and shifting harvest windows in ways that are harder to navigate. Logistical challenges persist. Importers who built their businesses on a single-origin model, or on extended financing cycles, are struggling to stay afloat. Some have consolidated. Others have closed entirely. The pressures are real, and a glance at our current global economic environment tells us they are not temporary.
Every decision we have made over the past two decades has been anchored in long-term predictability: for the producers who depend on consistent market access, for the roasters who rely on stable supply and for everyone in between. Predictability requires resilience, and resilience is the thread that runs through everything we have done.
And building resilience demands honest assessments: Where is our system fragile, and what would it take to meaningfully strengthen it? When we asked that question, one answer kept emerging: seasonality. A supply chain anchored to a single harvest window in a single region carries risks when it comes to quality continuity, financing exposure, political or economic disruption, and the year round availability roasters need to plan and grow.
That’s what ultimately brought us here, to Peru.
Yes, Onyx is expanding into Peru.
This isn’t a pivot to a new playground, or a social trend we’re chasing. In fact, we’ve successfully avoided expanding into new frontiers as long as we've existed. I’ve been weaving strong webs of industry relationships for twenty five years, and, in retrospect, see how the easy path of growing quantity over quality would have robbed us of the depth we now have. Over the years, there have been many invitations to tack on another origin or two, but I always feared it would compromise our mission.
Two years ago, I reconnected with an old friend and Peruvian exporter, and his musings got me curious. We had just experienced two years of pandemic logistics. It was clear we were in for more volatility ahead, and Peru struck a chord. Alternate seasonality, big quality potential, similar growing conditions to the Huehue mountains I grew up playing in, and lots of opportunities to connect producers to the marketplace. It felt aligned with our mission, so we went deep, meeting with friends and mentors. An old friend Amanda connected me with her husband Javier, a Venezuelan-Peruvian trader with an extensive resumé trading and buying Peru for multinationals.
This was the introduction that changed everything.
Immediately, it became clear that Javier’s buying knowledge was just the tip of the iceberg. He’d built his own strong supply networks and deep relationships in Peru, was a savvy buyer and a competent complex risk analyst, and most importantly, was wise beyond his years and value-aligned with the Onyx mission. We brought him on as a consultant, and then full time. We hired his logistics expert in Peru, Wilson, and traveled through the Amazonas together with the team to form supply relationships. Last season, we quietly imported our first boxes of Peru, sourcing from three regions: Cajamarca, Amazonas, and San Martin. We still have very limited spot options available now, and just dropped a Swiss Water decaffeinated Peru that’s dense, velvety, and delightful (Ask us about samples, and find us brewing our new Peru SWP at World Of Coffee! We'll be sharing our schedule in the next couple of days).
It turns out, Peru is the perfect accompaniment to Guatemala. The profiles we’re finding complement Guatemala’s structured blends wonderfully. Producers are eager to connect to the marketplace. The harvest seasons are exact opposites, which support stable, year-round fresh inventory while more efficiently utilizing the same capital. And Peruvian microclimates parallel the conditions of our Huehue highlands, allowing us to leverage our agronomic expertise.
While Onyx Peru represents an aligned and deeply intentional expansion, we have no illusions that we are the experts in Peru. Our roots in Huehue go back three generations, and there’s no way to replicate that foundation. This is an evolving journey, and we’re learning a lot along the way. So we’re starting humbly in Peru, building individual producer relationships through cooperatives and associations, and strengthening our supply network through Wilson at a sustainable pace. There are so many exciting things ahead, and we hope you’ll join us for the journey.
The Heart Behind Peru
Nearly seventy years ago, my grandparents Felipe and Marta Martinez began farming in Huehue. Twenty-five years ago, my wife Nina and I started importing coffee from that farm, Finca Vista Hermosa, into the United States. Twenty years ago, as we built relationships with neighboring producers, Onyx was born out of a single conviction: that coffee could be a vehicle for elevating people: producers, roasters, and everyone between.
Everything we’ve done since has been an expression of that belief. The long-term relationships, our lab and team based in Guatemala, the Coffee Blossom Honey project, our work with Habitat for Humanity, the 87+ nano-lot gems and the community blends built on traceability. Each step was a way of widening the drying patio so more people could stand on it.
Peru is the continuation of that same work.
Over the coming weeks, we’ll be sharing vignettes into Peru. We want to share all about Javier, our lab, the regions and lots we’re offering, and the stories of the people who make it all possible. We’ll share more at World of Coffee, too. Will you be there?
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